


Stop Stealing My Fish

by JustYourProblem



Series: Of Land and Sea [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blood and Gore, Cussing, F/F, Farmer!Jack, Few OC's - Freeform, I swear Junkrat has ADHD, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Kidnapping, M/M, More tags will appear as I go, Partial Nudity, Vetern!Jack, Young!Genji, Young!Hanzo, Young!Jesse Mcree, Young!Junkrat, Young!Tracer, Young!Widowmaker, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-02
Updated: 2016-10-14
Packaged: 2018-08-12 17:19:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 18
Words: 29,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7942738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustYourProblem/pseuds/JustYourProblem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack had retired from the Marines and was a foster parent who adopted two out of the three kids. Now with them at a summer camp for three weeks, it's high time Jack takes a small vacation. He just didn't know that there would be merfolk in it too.</p><p> </p><p>Based off a post by gummysquids on Tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Morrison Household

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be a weekly post to help get my groove back. Please enjoy!

John “Jack” Morrisan was your typical guy. He served in the Marines since he graduated high school and was with them for twenty years until he retired. Jack had inherited the family farm and it was much too big for him which he noticed that the moment he moved, and if it hadn’t been for the little girl that came into his life, he probably would have sold his house and moved somewhere smaller.

“Hana, Lucio, Jesse! Breakfast!” Jack called out as he set down the plate of pancakes.

He heard whatever video game Hana and Lucio was playing with turn off as they came running down the stairs. Hana went to go straight to the table but one look from Jack she had turned around to go wash her hands.

If you told Jack ten years ago that he would have opened his house and become a foster parent to three teenagers, he would have scoffed and said he isn’t parent material. Now though with the help of Hana being a little orphan thief, he got to see that he was parent material after all.

“Man, I’m so hungry I could eat a horse,” Jesse said as he walked in from the back door.

“Jesse, boots,” Jack reminded the seventeen year old boy.

“Right, sorry,” Jesse said as he took his boots off.

After washing their hands, Jack looked at his little family he had made over the years. Hana was born in America after her family fled from Korea. Sadly, her family was killed in a hate crime and Hana, even though being only seven at the time, couldn’t remember how she escaped. He had found her stealing some apples from his trees and when he took her in to the authorities, they asked him if he would like temporary custody for a month at the most. That was nine years ago and he had been able to legally adopt her three years ago. Jack couldn’t imagine his life without the girl and her constant demand to show him new video games she want to get.

Lucio he has been taking care of for six years now. Lucio came to America when he was only three months old after his parents got a job here. They moved here from Brazil, got American citizenship, and then died not too long afterwards to a car accident. Lucio survived but only just barely, with losing his legs. With no family members, Lucio was sent into the foster care system. With his legs gone, he was placed as high maintenance and while Lucio is the sweetest boy with an ear for music, no one wanted to deal with a kid that has trouble walking. That was until he was placed into Jack’s home. He’s currently going through adoption paperwork with him since to Jack, Lucio was already his son in his eyes.

Lastly, there was Jesse Mccree. He has been living with them for six month and they’ve had their ups and downs but he is a good boy. Jesse’s mother had died giving birth to him apparently and for most of his life, he lived with his father and two older brothers. They were in the notorious Deadlock Gang though and apparently the dad was the leader. The cops were able to crack and split apart the gang and while Jesse was dragged into it thanks to that fact, but after he served his time in juvie he didn’t have a family to go too. Angela, his CPS worker, asked if he would be fine with another high maintenance child. Jack welcomed him inside and while it was rocky at first, Jack had helped Jesse find an outlet with taking care and riding the few horses he has on his property. 

“Chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs? Score!” Hana called out all happy.

Jack chuckled as he saw the kids pile their plates and then began to eat like they never had before. 

“Are you three ready for camp?” Jack asked.

“Oh yeah. Just wait until I come back; I will be able to make my own computer!” Hana bragged.

“I can’t wait to go,” Lucio said.

“I can,” Jesse huffed. “I liked how you and Mercy got me into a cowboy themed camp and all, but I would rather stay here. Bessie should be giving birth soon and wouldn’t you need my help Jack?”

“Jesse, I have helped horses give birth long before you were born,” Jack stated, “one more should be no problem. You should go to the camp, have fun with kids your own age.”

Jesse gave a small pout which had Hana poking his cheek. They had a small playful fight that Jack let go for a moment before he told them they have to finish eating soon if they wanted to go to the camps.

Only twenty minutes later the three kids were in the living room with their respected suitcases. With Jack leading the way, the three kids all hit the horse shoe on top of the door frame for good luck. It was something that Jack’s family done since settling down in this town back in the seventeen hundreds and it always made Jack feel proud when his children did the same.

After the four all got into his blue suburban, Jack drove them into town where the other children were going to meet for the camps. Hana was going to an engineering camp where they work mostly with computers and making their own robots. Lucio was going to music camp and Jesse was going to a wild west one. After finding a parking spot, a blond woman waved at them.   
“Hey Mercy,” Jesse called.

“Hello Jesse, Lucio, Hana,” Angela, or Mercy as most of the kids called her, said. “You better hurry up if you want to get to camp.”

The three kids each grabbed their respected bags and ran off, Lucio surprising Jack once more on how fast the kid could be with his prosthetics.

“Three weeks without the kids, how will you ever survive Jack?” Mercy teased as she stood next to him.

“Like I do every day, just without the fights and more relaxing,” Jack said simply. “I might finally take my old fishing poles and go to Mako’s place by the sea. We've both have been wanting a vacation and decided to do a house swap for a week.”

“That sounds like it would be fun,” Mercy said. “I'm a bit shocked he's leaving though since his paychecks come from the sea.”

“Well, apparently he needed a vacation but we both have animals to take care of. I'm getting the better deal though since I only have to take care of a fish and he would have to be taking care of three pigs, two horses, and a lot of chickens.”

“Well, farm life is said to be fulfilling but not easy,” Mercy chuckled.

Jack was about to agree but he heard a noise like some busses starting. Not too long, the first bus departed and it was the one with Lucio. Jack waved back at the boy who was waving all excitedly and Mercy smiled.

“I'm going to let you be,” Mercy said. “I'll give you a call sometime.”

Jack said his goodbye and watched Mercy go. Jack waited by his car until his two other children's bus left to make sure they were safe before leaving to go home. Mako and Jack weren't going to do the house swap until Bessie gives birth since she was really close, so for now, he is going to be in a nice quiet home for a few days.


	2. Time For A Vacation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've been writing a lot and if I had done the once a week like I have wanted, it would have taken two months to get to where I'm at right now. So for a while, updates will be on Tuesdays and Fridays. Please enjoy!

It had only been two days since the kids had left for camp and Bessie was finally in labor. Jack was staying near the appaloosa, ready to go help when it was time. He already had his gloves on and thankfully he only got bit once by the highly irritated horse.

“So, you have to shove your hand into the horse and yank the foal out?” Mako asked as he leaned against the stable, a beer in his hand.

“Only if she shows distress,” Jack said simply.

Mako let out a snort and watched Jack dodge another bite. Jack and Mako met when Jack was stationed in Australia at a local bar for the military. The two hit it off well and when Mako retired, he moved to the US and has been living as a deep sea fisherman. The kids liked Mako, or Roadhog as they called him, which Jack was happy about.

“Looks like Bessie is determined to give you another scar,” Mako joked.

Jack huffed but didn't say anything. Both men were a bit conscious of their faces. Jack had two long scars on his face, on by his bottom lip that took some of his left cheek and the other was just above his left eye that slid down his nose bridge and ended just barely an inch into his cheek. Jack had almost lost that eye and has to wear glasses for long distance now.

Now Mako had more scars on his face then Jack did. Most were small and you wouldn't notice it if you weren't looking for them. He did have one noticeable scar at the bridge of his nose but what he was conscious about was his teeth. He had a bad underbite and sometimes when Mako was in deep thought, a couple of his bottom teeth would poke through.

“If you find this so fascinating, why don't you put the beer down and come help?” Jack slightly challenged.

“I would, but I rather not,” Mako grunted.

Jack was going to tease the giant but when Bessie started to cry out, he knew then it was time. It took about fifteen minutes to help Bessie give birth and the first thing the little foal did was kick Jack right in the crown jewels. Mako was laughing as Jack let out a string of curses but at least the little boy was born.

“The next time I see the Johnsons stud, I'm going to gild him,” Jack swore after he made sure the baby was fine and the umbilical cord was still attached.

“You should probably get Bessie and Kairi fixed then. Then maybe you wouldn't have a new mouth to feed and a pastor you can't use because of the giant hole the horse made,” Mako suggested.

“If I could I would,” Jack said. “Bessie is the last of her line though and that line has been in my family for generations and Hana doesn't want her horse fixed.”

“Then stop complaining about it old man,” Mako snorted.

“Hey, just because I'm older than you by three months does not mean you can make old man jokes. Hana and Jesse get that privileged.”

Mako chuckled and said, “Those kids got you wrapped around their fingers. Maybe them being at camp for three weeks and your week vacation will help you get your back bone back.”

Jack huffed as he waited the twenty minutes before encouraging the foal to get on up and drink from his mom. After he was sure they were fine and the umbilical cord finally cut, Jack and Mako went back inside. He took off his boots and placed them next to Jesse’s and went to wash up. Afterwords, the two men went to the living room to watch the wrestling game that originally brought Mako over. 

Jack sat in his old leather recliner as Mako took up most of the couch. The living room was nice with it furnished with only a China hutch that has Hana’s and Lucio’s 4-H trophies and Jack’s old military badges, two recliners, and a couch the pointed to the fireplace. On top of the fireplace was Jack’s flat screen TV and on the coffee table was snacks galore and some of it had fallen onto the cherry hardwood floors.

“Since Bessie gave birth, when do you want to do the house swap?” Mako asked after the commercial came on.

“How about this weekend? That should give me enough time to make sure the little guy is going to be okay,” Jack stated.

“All right, that gives me time to get everything ready for you,” Mako stated. “Just remember that if you go fishing on my boat, you have to go more than twenty five feet from the shore. There is a pretty deep part and while it can gather fish, the locals say it's off limits and I don't want to piss them off.”

“Alright, that makes the two of us,” Jack said.

 

* * *

 

 

Mako came over that Friday and Jack left Saturday after teaching Mako how to take care of the foal. The drive was long but once he got to Mako’s place if he knew it was worth it.

Jack’s house was three stories counting the basement and six bedrooms along with three bathrooms. His house was painted white with gray trimmings and thanks to help with Lucio, he had a nice seasonal flower garden going on that looked nice from the porch swing.

Mako’s house is a nice little house. With just two bedrooms and two bathrooms with the master and guest room facing the ocean. It was painted a nice tan but with ugly yellow trimming. Apparently the reason why Mako lives here is because it was run down. When Jack went inside he could see Mako still working on the place even after living here for three years. Mako’s living room was finished with a couch, two end tables, and a chair. There was some dollies here and there that Jack was sure that Mako made himself. The coloring was yellow and light brown to give it a home feeling. Mako had finished the master bedroom and the main bathroom but by the way the paint brushes all around the kitchen and how the guest room was packed with tools and a toilet, he was still a bit far away from finishing. At least Mako gave him permission to stay in his bed for the week he would be staying there.

With a sigh, Jack brought in his stuff from the car and then gathered his fishing supplies. Jack could have gone to the pear and fish from there but Mako gave him the key to his boat to fish. With a happy tune, he started the boat and began to go out to sea. He came to a stop at what he thought was twenty five feet from the shore and set out his line.

Jack was only out for an hour and he had already caught a couple of fish. He had thought about calling it quits after one more fish even though the two was enough. He didn't have to wait for very long before he felt a big tug. If it's a big of a fish as he thought, he wasn't going to need to fish for a while.

Jack had trouble reeling this fish in without snapping his line but with one final grunt and tug, Jack heard a giant splash. Jack had expected to see something like a mackerel or maybe a tuna. What he didn't expect to see was a dark brown skin male with a couple of scars on his right cheek, black hair, and piercing brown eyes. 

The male scowled and his _finned ears_ tilted downwards as he used _webbed hands_ to pull himself to the side of the boat, showing off his (Jack wasn't thinking of sexy, no sir) abs since he wasn't wearing a shirt. In one of his hands was his fishing line that the man threw into the boat.

“Hey, fucker,” the man growled, his voice gravely and deep. “Stop stealing my fish.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is based off of gummysquid.tumblr.com Mermaid AU  
> Got questions and want some author updates? My Tumblr is justyourproblemuniverse.tumblr.com. I sometimes post things about Stop Stealing My Fish and other fanfictions/ideas there so come and look if you want.


	3. I'm Not A Psychopath

Jack held onto his fishing pole like it was his lifeline as he stared at the man before him. Apparently he was staring too long for the man reach out and hit his head a couple of times as if he was knocking on a door.

“Is anyone in there?” the man demanded. “I knew land walkers were idiots but I didn't think it was this bad.”

“I'm not an idiot,” Jack retorted.

“Of course you would respond to that,” the man said as he rolled his eyes. “Prideful too.”

Jack was going to demand the man to stop insulting him but his voice was stuck in his voice as the man used his arms to hold himself up and he used his  _ tail  _ to give himself an extra ledge. His tail was dark brown, almost black and long with the end slightly ripped.

“Listen here  _ human, _ ” the man, no,  _ merman  _ spat like the word was revolting to say. “It is in the treaty that no land walker will fish in this area and if I find you fishing here again, I'll drag you deep into the ocean to allow the sharks feast on you. Understand?”

Jack slowly nodded and the man gave him a smile fit for a psychopath.

“Good,” the man purred.

As suddenly as the merman appeared, he disappeared. Jack quickly went over the edge to see if he could see the other but he didn't see anything. Jack stared at it for a moment before he started the boat and went back to Mako’s house. 

 

* * *

 

Gabriel swam deep in the deep blue part of the sea and gathered some fish. This place was full of food for the said fish and while it was certainly lacking like the rest of the oceans, it still had a lot more and easier ones to catch. On the plus side, it was open territory for all merpeople so Gabriel didn't have to worry about trespassing onto another one's territory.

Once Gabe got enough fish to feed his small family, he swam to their underwater cave home where his three children was waiting for him.

“Hey Pops! Did you get any tuna? Huh? Huh? Huh?” Jamie asked as he swam around with a kelp rope around his waist. The rope was made so that his striped zebra shark tail wouldn't get tangled as he swam around and pulled his sister Lena around.

“I did and Lena, let Jamie go,” Gabriel demanded as he held up a small kelp net that had Jamison’s share of the food.

“Awww, but it's fun! You never know when he's going to turn next,” Lena complained but she did as she was told.

Soon, Gabe was sitting on his high ledge, looking down at his small rag tag family.

There was his oldest child, Amelie whose lower half was a barracuda and she is as feisty as her fish side. He had found her when he heard about the illegal fighting ring of mean fish. At that time, Gabriel had worked as a law enforcer for the Talon Clan and this was happening in their territory. Amelie was only ten at the time but she was dubbed  _ Widowmaker _ after she killed her first owner after a fight. With nowhere to go, Gabriel took her under his wing and she has never left his side.

The next one was Lena, or Tracer as Amelie calls her, was one he found only eight months after taking Amelie in. She is from the Spinner dolphin group, a group of merpeople taking not only the tail of the Spinner dolphin but characteristics of one. Lena had been separated by her pod and Gabe was suppose to take care of her until they find them and he is still having trouble doing so, even though it's been ten years. While he could technically kick her out of his pod since she is sixteen now, he didn't have the heart too.

The last one was Jamison, or Jamie, and he was only fifteen. Gabe found him when he was eleven, his right arm missing and his tail badly damaged. Apparently Jamie was too energetic for his family and like most shark merfolk, they decided to kill and eat him. Jamie was too fast and Gabe found him by following the scent of blood. He took him in after Lena begged him too and Gabe has to do most of the hunting either with Amelie or solo. With most of his tail gone, Jamie has trouble swimming sometimes and would get stuck belly up. It was dangerous for any fish species to go belly up for they could die. Lena enjoyed watching over Jamie and didn't care for hunting.

Jamie was tearing into his fish like no tomorrow which made Amelie scrunch her face in disgust. Lena didn't mind it though, use to Jamie's eating behavior and even wiping some of the fish carcass off her bare breast when it landed on it.

“It took you a while getting this much fish for going only to the treaty grounds,” Amelie said, her voice cold and tactical but that was how she normally talked.

“Fish is scarce even there. If you want to complain you can go hunting next time,” Gabe said.

Jamie was laughing at how Gabe scolded the other while he was a bit shocked why he kept the information about the land walker to himself. He silently told himself that it was because he didn't want Amelie going after him for sport. It's tough enough to allow Lena up near the surface to let her do her much need flips, tricks, and air.

“Hey Pops, can I come with you next time?” Jamie asked after he ate his fill.

“I'll take you on for a field trip but not to hunt,” Gabe answered.

Jamie pouted and he felt bad for the kid but he would more likely scare the fish away before he could even get close. He had trouble enough time as is swimming in a straight line. 

“We can go hunt some oysters tomorrow as a pod,” Gabe growled, irritated on how the kids got him wrapped around his fingers.

Lena and Jamie were all excited which could be seen with how they called out in joy with their hands in their the air. Amelie covered her ears to block out the noise but she couldn't stop the small smile, happy to have an outing as a pod. Meanwhile, Gabe sighed as he knew it was going to be a long day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I told you that I swore Junkrat had ADHD.


	4. Don't Anger The God

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quickly before Friday ends in a few minutes, the promised chapter. Sorry for the wait!

Jack had done research long and hard, trying to understand what he had saw. He looked up merpeople and while he knew he got some myths, he was a bit surprised to find something on this town. 

Apparently a long time ago, this place was native grounds. The native Americans had, like most tribes, believed in spirit animals but this tribe believed they could turn into said animal. It was something that was suppose to be small like the eyes of an eagle or the smell of a wolf but one day, they were visited by an enemy tribe from over the water. There was a bloody battle and it was clear that they were evenly matched. Still, they fought hard and when both tribes dwindled to small numbers so they pleaded with the Great Spirit to make them more characteristics of their spirit animals to give an extra edge to fight. The Great Spirit agreed but he had also been mad at them for the senseless fighting. He had cursed those who wished it to take partial form of said spirit animal, but they would be forever stuck in that form. Now seeing the wrong of their ways, they fled either to forest or sea to carry their punishment. 

Jack was shocked to read that the tribes had created two places of treaties, one in the ocean and one in the forest. The author even made a note that the current locals still believes in this story and won't fish at a certain spot in the ocean and has most of the forest protected for one clearing.

This gave Jack a bit of an idea why Mako had warned him about the fishing spot but the man he saw looked almost like he was Hispanic or something similar. He didn't look Native American but it was the closest he got to what the merman was.

Since it was late and most of the research was fruitless other than that one myth so Jack called it good for now. After turning his laptop off, he searched his bags until he found what he was looking for: his camera. Yes, it was a bit old but he planned to get at least a photo of what he saw that day, trying to make himself believe he didn't go off the deep end.

Once the camera was in a spot where he won't forget it, Jack went to bed so he can start his hunt early in the morning.

 

* * *

 

The next day, Jack went fishing once more at the same spot but he brought a cooler with him. He brought the container so that each fish Jack caught, he them in the salt water filled cooler so they wouldn't die. He wasn't fishing today to eat but as the only way he knew that would bring the merman to him.

After seven hours, Jack had dumped the fish overboard and went home empty handed. He was now having doubts that he even saw a merman as he didn't appear. He told himself he would only do this for two more days since he didn't have much time and if he didn't see the merman again, he was going to write off as him being tired.

The next day, he only had to wait three hours before something heavy hit his boat, almost tipping him over. Jack quickly grabbed his camera and went to the side where the hit and come from. He was just barely able to peer over the side before two dark arms grabbed him by his shirt and pull him in the water.

Thankfully Jack had taken a deep breath before going in and by his personal record, he got maybe three minutes before he ran out of air. His eyes stung as the salt hit them and while he was blinded, he could still make out the blurry figure of the merman in front of him. Jack had tried to take a picture before he remembered his camera wasn't waterproof so it was pointless.

_ “I had warned you land dweller that you shouldn't fish here,”  _ the same voice of the merman said but he didn't hear it with his ears but rather in his head.  _ “Now I'm going to take you to the nearest shark and have the enjoyment of watching you be torn from limb to limb.” _

Jack had tried to say wait but even he could hardly make out what he had said underwater. While Jack couldn't see it, Gabe had somewhat of an understanding on what the other had said and was a bit curious. 

Sure, watching a human being eaten was most merman’s sick form of entertainment but Gabriel wasn't like that. While he did despised humans for all the harm they did to the oceans and how they killed many of his brethren in the past, Gabe didn't have any personal grudges against humans. It was the main reason why he left his Talon Clan shortly after he got Lena. They were all for killing as many humans as they can and Gabe didn't want to expose the kids to that.

Gabriel took Jack to the surface since he couldn't speak normally underwater and pinned him to the boat by his neck.

“You have three minutes to give me a good excuse why I shouldn't kill you,” Gabriel hissed, showing off his sharp teeth. Sure, they weren't like needles like Jamison’s are and they are more humanoid than some merfolk, but they are still sharper than a human's and could do some real damage.

“I wasn't fishing for food,” Jack explained with a small cough to dispel some of the sea water he got in his mouth. “I released each fish I caught. I'm just trying to meet you again.”

Gabe gave Jack a confused look as he subconsciously lighten his grip just a bit. “Why?”

Jack held up his hand that still held the broken camera and Gabriel quickly grabbed it. He looked it over as he didn't know what it was. He even tried taking a bite out of it and while it did leave the black surface with some weird bite marks, Jack couldn't find himself to care at the cute scene.

“What is this?” Gabriel asked as he waved the item around.

“It's called a camera. It can take pictures,” Jack explained.

Gabriel now glared at Jack as he knew what a camera and pictures are. They are bad for merfolk who are trying to stay in hiding after trying so hard to disappear from the humans.

“Are you a hunter?” Gabriel asked.

“What?”

Gabriel slammed Jack more into the boat with an animal hiss.

“Are you a merfolk hunter?” Gabriel asked. “The ones who have been stealing merfolk?”

“No,” Jack said. “Before you, I haven't seen a merfolk before. I just wanted your picture so I would know I wasn't crazy.” Jack was then silent and asked, “Is a human hunting you down?”

“When aren't one of you humans hunting us down?” Gabriel replied. He then began to squeeze the camera until it made a satisfying cracking sound before throwing it into the boat. “There is one though that is said to be coming to these waters, or it died. Most say it died.”

Jack watched as Gabriel studied him, trying to see if Jack was the hunter. “Do you wear a mask?”

“No,” Jack answered, confused.

Gabriel stared at Jack harder and then let him go. Without Gabriel holding him up, Jack fell into the ocean for a moment before coming back to the surface with a disgusted cough.

“Then you aren't the hunter,” Gabriel said as if Jack never fell into the ocean. 

The merman turned to his side and Jack knew he was going to leave. Without thinking, Jack reached out and grabbed his shoulder.

“Wait!” Jack demanded. Gabriel froze where he was and glared at Jack. Jack was fumbling on what to say before he said, “I'm Jack, Jack Morrisan.”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow and was silent before he said, “Okay.”

“What's your name?”

Gabriel smiled at Jack, amused that he would ask such a thing. “I'm not telling you. Names are powerful things that are only shared with close friends and family.”

Jack shoulders slouched a bit, sad he didn't get the merman’s name. “Can we meet up again?”

Now Gabriel looked confused at the other and asked, “Why?”

“Because I want to be friends,” Jack said as he mentally added,  _ and you're really hot. _

Gabriel sighed and said, “Very well. We can meet again tonight if you want.” 

Jack smiled slightly as Gabriel pointed down the ways, to a small curve of the land.

“If you go to the other side of that small land there is a tide pool area. Most land dwellers don't go there since it's extremely rocky and dangerous. If you really want to meet again, meet me there at moon high.”

With that, Gabriel left Jack and went to go back to hunting. Jack in the meanwhile, had trouble getting back in the boat but once he was in, he grabbed his camera. It was spilt down in two with its inners poking out. Jack was disappointed that he didn't get a picture of the merman but he had more pressing matters to get to. Like getting to shore and taking a shower before he gets a cold.


	5. High Moon

After Jack got back to Mako’s place and took a shower, he realized something: he didn't know what moon high meant. Did it mean it was when the moon was at its highest peak? Maybe when the moon was above the water?

Jack sighed as he sat on Mako’s recliner. He swore trying to figure out what moon high meant to the merman was like trying to out why Jesse always said it's high noon before doing something dangerous.

Since Jack didn't know, he decided he would leave at sunset. For now though, he needed to take care of his share of the chores.

 

* * *

 

Jack had gotten in his car when it was almost sunset with a thermos with coffee and a sandwich for his dinner. Maybe sunset wasn't moon high so he should have time to eat a quick dinner when he got there.

It didn't take that long to get to the end of the land there but he didn't see any tide pools. Jack was worried that the merman was lying about them and just said it to confuse him. But then again, the merman said it was a bit dangerous to get to which is why humans rarely go there.

After leaving his car Jack went to find the tide pools. After an hour though, he was about to give up so he started to head for his car when he noticed something. The tide was going down and it was starting to show a muddy path way. Jack waited by his car now, waiting to see what will happen.

Another half an hour went by and the moon was almost at the peak when Jack noticed it. The pathway lead to a small little rocky island that would be perfect for tide pools.

Taking his thermo with him, Jack had started to walk down the pathway. He could see why not many humans tried to get to the tide pools shortly though. He kept sinking in the mud and almost fell into the ocean a couple of times. By the time he got to the solid rocky area, his legs were covered in mud and he swore he was going to reek like the ocean for a week at the very least.

“That had to be the most entertaining thing I saw all day,” a familiar voice called out.

Jack looked near the water and saw the merman leaning against the tide pools. He clearly looked amused while Jack looked slightly irritated.

“I'm glad you enjoyed the show,” Jack said as he sat down near the merman. Since he was already wet and smelly he didn't mind.

The merman laughed at Jack which caused the human to huff and try to rub his slight blush away. Thankfully, the merman didn't notice as he got out of the water to sit near Jack so they could face each other without Reaper straining his neck. Of course though, he had to be taller than Jack so he had to look up a bit to see his face.

“What is that?” Reaper asked as he pointed to the container. 

“It's a thermos,” Jack explained, “it’s holding my coffee.”

“Coffee?” Reaper asked.

Jack could see that the man was curious and so he used it to his advantage. “I can share it with you if you want but you have to give me a name to call you,” he said.

Reaper glared at Jack, as if offended that the other would do that. In just a moment though, Reaper held out his hand as said, “Reaper.”

“Reaper?” Jack asked but he handed the thermos anyway. “Fitting, oddly.”

“Reaper” snorted as he opened the container and sniffed it. While most things under the sea didn't have a scent, Gabe knew most land dwellers poison smells. This liquid didn't smell poisonous, just odd. Reaper took an experimental drink before spitting most of it out.

“What, you don't like it?” Jack asked, slightly offended.

“Hot,” Gabe admitted as he wiped some of the coffee off of him.

“Oh I should have told you that,” Jack chuckled nervously as he rubbed the back of his neck.

Gabe took another drink but this time more slowly. His tongue was still angry at him for taking a drink of something hot so fast but he was able to taste the coffee this time. He saw Jack’s hand reach out for the thermos and Gabe just turned around as he continued to sip on the coffee, not ready to give it up.

“You really like it huh?” Jack chuckled.

“It's...odd but it has a nice flavor,” Gabe said slowly.

They sat in silence after that but it wasn't  terribly uncomfortable. Only when the coffee was gone did Reaper broke the silence.

“Why did you want to meet?” he asked.

“Would you believe it if I said I just wanted to meet you?” Jack said after a moment. Reaper glared at Jack and he brought his hands up. “It's true! Your interesting and-”

“It's only interesting because of my tail,” Reaper said as he rolled his eyes.

“That's not the main thing,” Jack defended himself.

“Then what is interesting about me that made you come to a dangerous spot?” Reaper asked. “If you say my ears or anything of my shark features, then I'm pushing you off this tidepool. And don't even try to lie, I can tell when someone does.”

Jack didn't want to tell Reaper but the other was a merman and who knew what he could do. With a sigh he mumbled something.

“What was that?” Reaper asked.

“I said I like your muscles, mainly your abs,” Jack said a bit louder.

Reaper looked to Jack before lifting his shirt up. Jack tried to push it down but Reaper saw what he needed to.

“Of course you do. You barely have any at all,” Reaper chuckled.

“Shut up. You swim all the time and with your tail going up and down all the time, I would be shocked if you didn't have any,” Jack huffed.

“My tail goes side to side. I'm a Sand Shark, not one of those dolphins,” Reaper corrected.

“How was I supposed to know? I'm not a marine biologist so I don't know much about fish. I highly doubt you share too much traits with your fishy side anyway.”

“Oh yeah?”

With no warning, Jack was grabbed and pulled under the water. He already needed breath but Reaper ignored it as he took him closer and closer to the ocean floor.

_ “I may look like a human but I have more shark in me than that,”  _ Reaper spoke once more into his mind.  _ “My upper body is some of what keeps me from being a full sand shark but their wild instincts run into much more than you'll ever know.” _

Reaper then leaned in close to Jack, his mouth open wide to wrap around his neck. Jack had seen death before, both from his hands and when it almost came for him. When he was younger, he thought he would die from the battlefield, serving his country and trying to protect those who couldn't. After his service and becoming a father, he thought he would die after Hana gotten a family herself, Lucio became the famous musician he knew he would be, and hell, he thought Jesse would either stay at his side as a helper or work as a cop for the town. That kid always had a sense of justice after being against it for so long and he did seem to like the farm life.

Jack tried to pull his arms away but he was weak from the lack of oxygen and Reaper was strong. Instead, he looked to the other with slight fear but also in thought. He felt the teeth around his throat and when he brought his legs up to kick the other away, he felt vibrations where Reaper held him.

Jack was confused as Reaper leaned back, not so much leaving a small nick on Jack. He was laughing at Jack which sounded odd under water.

_ “I'm only joking Jack,”  _ Reaper said.  _ “I'm not so savage that I will kill you so soon.” _

Jack let out a sigh of relief but when he tried to bring air in, he only got water instead. Jack began to kick and he heard Reaper growl something at him but he didn't care. He may have not ripped his throat out but Jack was dying by drowning.

Reaper stared at Jack in anger before he remembered that humans can't breath under water. With a small kick from his tail, he shot up from the sea and went fast to the surface. As soon as they broke through, Jack had gasped for the air before coughing up the water he did get. 

Reaper swam to the tide pools and helped Jack up. As Jack was on his hands and knees, trying to get his blood flowing again, Reaper leaned close to the tide pools.

“Oops,” Reaper said simply.

This had Jack send a glare at Reaper. The merman just chuckled though and leaned away from the rock now.

“I'll see you tomorrow night at low tide again,” he said simply. “Bring more coffee.”

With that, Reaper was gone and left Jack to fend for himself. Jack let out a groan, his throat rough from hacking up so much water.

“Reaper really fits him,” he sighed as he got up, grabbed his thermos, and left to get back into his car.


	6. One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! So I've been thinking and since this is getting good remarks and feedbacks, I decided to do something nice. Each time the kudos hit a hundred mark, I'll post a chapter early. So please enjoy!
> 
> WARNING:This is where the implied drug use come in and Jesse is thrown through a loop. If you want to skip it, go to where the break line is and at the end I'll put a small summary of what happened.

The next day, Jake went to a local fisherman store and bought knee high waterproof boots and waterproof suspenders. Jack had to throw away his shoes and pants from last night and he didn't want to ruin anymore clothes.

Jack had decided to buy some groceries and while he was debating on buying some coffee ice cream, his cell phone began to ring. Jack opened the phone and saw an unknown number but he answered it anyway.

“Is this John Morrisan?” a female's voice demanded before he could even say hello.

“This is,” Jack said, confused.

“This is Amy Summers and I run Wild West Camp here. I wish to speak to you about your charge Jesse Mccree,” she said.

Jack held in his sigh as he grabbed the ice cream and slowly made it to the front. “Yes? What's wrong with Jesse?” Jack asked.

“What's wrong with him is that he's the son of Charlie Mccree, the leader of the Deadlock gang,” the woman stated. “Now I didn't recognize the similarities at first but some of the other children had put two and two together. They have informed their parents and now they're threatening to take their children out and I can't have that. If I had even known who Mccree’s real father was then I wouldn't have even allowed him in! I'm sorry but Mccree is being sent home and is on his way now.”

By the time the woman was finished Jack was at the cashier and he had to fight down the anger that threatened to cause a yelling match with that woman. Instead in a cold voice he asked, “Did Jesse do anything wrong?”

“What?” Amy asked.

“Did Jesse steal, beat, or did he break any of your rules while he was there?” Jack asked.

“Well, no and it's why it took me this long to figure out he was that  _ Mccree _ ,” Amy admitted.

“So he's being sent home when he did no wrong, because of his father.”

“Well, yes-”

“And in your pamphlet that I got, did it not say this camp was an equal opportunity camp?”

“Yes. My camp prides-”

“Equal opportunity also means that you would not judge a child's birth or up bringing. You are breaking your own rules just because of something Jesse can't control. I will go pick him up, I assure you, but you'll soon be hearing from my lawyers.”

After that, Jack hung up his phone and slammed it into his pocket with a small growl.

“Wow, you really care for your kid,” the cashier said as she put the last of Jack’s groceries into a paper bag.

“Thanks Ms. Mei-Ling,” Jack said as he read her name tag and handed her the money.

“I hope you get that camp,” she said with a small smile.

“I will,” Jack answered as he grabbed his bags and left.

Jack had only made a quick stop to Mako’s place to drop off the groceries and then made a call to Mercy to tell them what has happened.

“Poor Jesse,” Mercy sighed after Jack told her. “I'll get the lawyers round up but that's not going to help him emotionally.”

“I know. It's going to set him back a bit,” Jack said. “He was doing so well do Angelia.”

“I know. Every time I've seen him since he was placed in your house, he looked a little happier,” Mercy said. “What are you going to do Jack?”

“Well, I have three more days at Mako’s place. Jesse never seen the ocean before but I don't think he'll like fishing that much.”

“As long as it's with you Jack, I doubt Jesse won't mind much,” Mercy said in a slightly chipper tone.

“I hope so but I have to call Mako to tell him the situation and see if he would mind Jesse joining me.”

“You know he won't,” Mercy giggled. “I'll talk to you later though.”

With good byes, Jack hung up and called Mako. He told the giant his situation and Mako suggested to make Jesse's vacation a week at the ocean, he didn't mind. Jack tried to tell Mako it was okay but he insisted and in the end, Jack agreed. He asked about the animals and how the farm was which he was told fine. Their conversation wasn't long and soon, Jack spent the last hour in silence, worrying for Jesse.

When he got to the pick up sight, the bus wasn't there but he wasn't surprised. Mako’s place was only two and a half hours away from the town while the camp was four. This gave Jack some time to run to the nearby stores and get Jesse his favorite soda and candy bar. He then waited and soon saw a white van with the camp’s logo on it.

Jack watched as Jesse got off the van with his red duffle bag. He looked like when he first got him, stone faced and while his back was straight as if he was ready to take on the world, his feet was unsteady with the fear or sadness that was on him.

“Hey Jesse,” Jack said as Jesse walked to the car.

Jesse didn't say anything and just threw duffle bag into the back of the car. Jack sighed as he got in and watched Jesse buckle himself up.

“I got you some food,” Jack said.

Jesse looked at Jack’s offering hand and saw the food but he looked away as he crossed his arms, “I'm not hungry.”

“Okay. They're here for you when you want them,” Jack said as he put the items down.

They stayed in silence for a while but it didn't take Jesse very long to notice that they weren't heading home.

“You’re taking me to a group home aren't you?” Jesse said suddenly.

“What? No I'm-” Jack started.

“You are! Don't lie to me!” Jesse called out. “You’re not heading to the farm and you bought me sweets. I don't want the pity or bribe.”

Without any warning, Jesse rolled down the window and tossed the drink and candy bar outside the window.

“Mccree!” Jack yelled as he slowed down and went to the curb.

“Yeah, that's my name and don't you wear it down! Ain't like no one will,” Jesse chuckled. “I'm a Mccree and ain't nobody ever going to let me live that down.”

Jack watched Jesse slapped the dashboard in anger as tears began to fill his eyes.

“My family had been running the Deadlock gang for years. They have bodies dragging behind them from the shooting or drugs they sold. Hell,  _ I've  _ even helped them. I sold kids my own age fucking speed. I've helped my brothers hunt down folks who owed us money and shook them down for it. I know how to shoot a gun and I may not have killed anyone with it, but I'm sure I killed people with the drugs. There's no way that anyone would forgive me for what I did. I understand why you want to take me to a group home but you should just take me back to jail. I should be rotting in there with the rest of the Mccree’s because apparently, the outlaw life is all we are good at.”

Jack stared at Jesse for a moment and then asked, “Who was it gave Kairi the medicine after she had a fight with Bessie?”

“Me?” Jesse asked after a moment of silence, clearly confused.

“Who has been teaching Lucio to play the guitar?”

“Me.”

“Who helped me get the pigs back in their pin after they escaped?”

“I don't understand why you asking me this Jack-”

“What was your last report card mostly made of?”

“B’s and a couple of C’s! You know all this so why are you asking me this?” Jesse demanded.

“Does any of that sound like a gang member? Is it what they do?” Jack asked.

“Well...no.”

“Jesse, you did some things in the past but I won't ever judge you for it. What you did was wrong but you didn't know that at the time. You where just a kid and you do know now, and you're trying to better yourself from it. What Amy Summers and the other adults did was wrong. You should only be judged by your actions, not someone else's.”

Jesse stared at Jack with both bewilderment but with gratitude too. Not caring, Jesse leaned to Jack and gave him a hug which the elder returned.

“Thanks Jack,” Jesse whispered.

“You're welcome,” Jack said. “However, you're going to go find that soda and candy bar. There's no littering allowed.”

“Yes sir,” Jesse said with a mock salute.

With Jesse out of the car, Jack let out a sigh. Jesse had taken two steps back thanks to that camp but he was sure now that he's taken six steps forward.

 

* * *

>  

Jack had kept silent on where they were going but he promised Jesse that it was a vacation. Jesse respected it enough not to try and demand an answer, he did however tried to guess it.

“Six Flags?” Jesse asked.

“No.”

“Water World?”

“That's states away.”

“A theme park?”

“No.”

“Camping?”

“No.”

Jesse opened his mouth to ask some more but the trees had finally gave away and showed the ocean.

“The ocean?” Jesse asked softly.

“Yes,” Jack answered with a chuckle.

“That's really big,” Jesse admitted.

“It is.”

They were in silence for a while until they got inside Mako’s house.

“Who old lady did you rent this from?” Jesse asked as he looked around.

“This is Mako’s place,” Jack answered with a smile.

Jesse sputtered then, shocked. “You mean the seven foot tall guy that drives that big ass bike? The one that hands are so big he can cover my whole head?  _ This is Roadhog’s place?!” _

“Don't worry, I won't tell him that you said his house looks like an old ladies,” Jack joked.

Jesse groaned as Jack laughed. Jesse tried to hide his smile but Jack saw it anyway.

“Go ahead and put your stuff in the room, I'll take the couch to sleep. Afterwords, you can help me cook some of the fish I caught,” Jack ordered.

“Can we do some fishing too?” Jesse asked.

“Sure but hurry up,” Jack said.

Once Jesse put the duffel bag in the room, Jack taught him a good way to cook the fish he caught. After they had their late lunch, Jack took Jesse to the store to buy himself some fishing supplies.

“Welcome back sir,” Mei-Ling said as she started to ring them up.

“Well, aren't you working a lot,” Jack said.

“My parents own the shop and since it's summer, I'm trying to get as much money as I can. My school allows some students to go abroad for a semester and next year we can go to China,” Mei-Ling admitted.

“Wow, that's far,” Jesse whistled.

“Yeah,” Mei-Ling said, “but China is really beautiful.”

“It is. I was stationed Japan once and when I got a week off, I went to China. You're going to love it.”

“Thank you,” Mei-Ling said.

“Hey Mei-Ling, you are a local right?” Jesse asked.

“Yes?”

“Do you mind showing me around later? My Pops and I are visiting for a bit and no offense pop but you're getting too old to hang out,” Jesse said.

“Uh, sure. I get off at six. Do you want to meet at the pier?”

“He will but Jesse, be back by nine,” Jack said.

“Yes sir,” Jesse said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The director of the camp Jesse went to was a bitch and sent him home early because he is the son of an outlaw which scared a lot of other kids and their parents. Jack decided to take him to the ocean (and Mako even gave him an extra week) and on their way, Jesse thought that Jack was sending him to a group home (A group home is a home where a lot of dangerous teenagers live together. It's kind of like juvie without the bars I've been told). Jesse those a huge fit and demands that Jack takes him to jail instead because that's where he belongs. He hasn't killed anyone with a gun but Jesse would sell drugs to kids his own age and killed them that way. Jack calms Jesse down by reminding him of some of the good he done and promises him he would never judge him because of his family. Jesse has calmed down and the two bonded a little more after that.


	7. True Name

Jack and Jesse went to fish and Jack made sure he was far from the treaty area. Jesse was able to catch a really big tuna which Jack took a picture of Jesse holding it.

Soon, they went back to the house where Jack quickly made them dinner.

“If you will be late, text me,” Jack said.

“Sure,” Jesse said.

“And be careful around the water. There's shark in there,” Jack said but when he said shark, Reaper’s face was the one to pop in his head.

“Shoot Jack, you're getting more nervous than a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs,” Jesse teased. “It's not a date, just a local showing me around and maybe making a friend.”

“Just be careful,” Jack said once more. “And have fun.”

Jesse made yet again a mock salute before leaving. Jack did the dishes before checking his computer for the tides table and saw that the next low tide wasn't until eight. He frowned at that. Since Jesse was suppose to be home at nine, he might not he able to go as it takes thirty minutes just to get there. Jack sighed and went to check on Mako’s fish as he thought on what to do.

 

* * *

 

“Jamison!” Gabriel yelled as he swam after his youngest charge.

Gabriel and Jamie were hunting for clams as Amelia and Lena went to go get some kelps and bullwhips for some crafts around the house. While he knew Jamie was going to be a handful, he didn't expect Jamie to go hunting after some actual fish.

“Come on! I can catch one!” Jamie called back, determined to do so.

“Jamison, no!” Gabe said.

Jamie ignored him and was able to pounce onto the small tuna. Gabe would have been proud of his pup if he didn't catch the fish in the Shimada Clan's territory with two of its enforcers near by.

“See! I caught it!” Jamie said proudly, not noticing as two great white shark enforcers coming near.

“Jamie, drop it,” Gabe said as he looked at shark guards.

“Yes, drop it pup,” one of the body guards demanded.

Jamie let out a yelp as jumped back. He looked at the three and held onto the fish tightly.

“No, I caught it fair and square,” Jamie fought.

“On Shimada territory,” the other guard said. “Maybe we should take your other arm for trying to steal,” the first guard said.

“No,” Gabriel said as he went in front of Jamie. “He didn't know he was in Shimada territory. We will release the fish and won't trespass again.”

“Like bloody hell I will!” Jamie argued. “Those wrankers can try to take my arm, but I'll show them that I ain't feeble.”

This caused the two sharks to growl which had Gabriel take a fighting stance. He let out a hiss, showing he will fight for his pup if it came to it.

“Wow, you caught that yourself?” a new voice said suddenly.

Gabe looked over to the voice as the two sharks bowed. There was two other males, both with what Gabe assumed was eel tails but one was blue in the light and the other gray. The one with the blue tail looked almost annoyed with long black hair while the other had short black hair. They looked about the same so Gabe thought perhaps they were brothers.

“That I did,” Jamie said as he puffed out his chest but he kept the fish in his hand.

“Heir Shimada, Young Lord Shimada, what do you want done with these intruders?” the second guard asked.

Gabe leaned down a bit as if he was bowing but in truth he was slowly reaching for Jamie. He could probably fight the two enforcers but not the two Shimada’s too. The best thing to do was to swim away and hide Jamie. If they keep following him, he would have to fight but at least he knew Jamie would be safe.

The youngest Shimada ignored everyone as he swam around Gabe to look at Jamie.

“That's amazing!” he said. “How?”

“Easy! I saw the fish, swam after it and then pounced on it!” Jamie said with pride.

“Sparrow, what are you thinking?” the heir asked.

“Let him keep the fish,” Sparrow said. “He caught it fairly.”

“That I did,” Jamie said but he saw something and if Gabe didn't grab his hand, he would have swam after it.

“He can keep the fish,” the heir said. “Only he of that pod can come into our territory but he can only catch one fish a week.”

“Thank you,” Gabe said. 

Jamie still tried to go after what he saw but one yank from Gabe, he went back to the current situation.

“Yeah, thanks!” Jamie said.

“Your welcome! See you later,” Sparrow said.

Gabe stayed where they were until the four had left. He then began to lead Jamie away.

“You're bound to the cave for a two days,” Gabe said.

“What? Why?” Jamie yelled out in shock.

“Oh I don't know, maybe because you almost got us killed!” Gabe growled as he turned around and glared at Jamie. “I told you not to catch that fish because we were no longer in our territory and that is punishable by death or worse depending on the clan!”

“But we weren't! That Sparrow dude let me keep the fish and now I can hunt there! I say that's a win,” Jamie argued. “I'm not so hurt that I can't hunt! I'm a good hunter!”

“Whether or not you're a good hunter isn't the issue now,” Gabe growled. “You need to learn the rules of the ocean and follow them.”

“Rules are made to be broken,” Jamie growled. “If you even bound me to the cave, I will just swim away.”

“No you won't,” Gabriel said. “Jamieson Fawkes, you will stay inside the cave for those two days unless I take you out.”

Jamie eyes widen as he felt a shiver down his spine. He let out a growl as he knew what has happened and he wasn't very pleased about it. He threw the fish he caught at Gabe and began to swim towards the cave.

Gabriel sighed but followed Jamie. He didn't like using that power but he needed Jamie to understand that hunting in someone else's territory can get you killed or something much worse.


	8. More Alike Than Seemed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gah! I've been so busy today I almost forgot that today is Tuesday. Here's the next chapter and now I'm off to pick up my sister's birthday cake. Please enjoy!

In the end, Jack decided he would visit Reaper even for a little bit. He shouldn't just ditch the merman when he was trying to build trust. He will however need to let him know that he has Jesse with him so he might not be able to get to see him for long.

After sending Jesse a text on where to find the spare key if he wasn't home, Jack went to the tide pools. He brought the extra coffee like the other wanted. Once he got there and was on the tide pool rock, Reaper didn't show up. Jack waited half an hour and was about to leave when he heard a splash.

“Sorry for the wait,” Reaper said as he jumped up onto the rock.

“Are you okay?” Jack asked, noticing how grumpy Reaper was looking.

“Just peachy,” came the reply.

Jack handed the coffee to Reaper who was thankful to get it even though he didn't say so. They sat in silence for a while before Jack said, “I might not be able to visit too much.”

“Why?” Reaper asked.

“Well, you see I have three kids and they're suppose to be at camp. One of the kids though, he came back early. He's here with me and I don't want to worry him about how I keep leaving at random times.”

Reaper looked at Jack for a moment but then he said, “It's understandable. I have pups as well and they will kill you if they find out we're meeting.”

“Wait, you're a father too?” Jack asked.

“Is there a problem with that?” Reaper growled as he glared at the human.

“No. I just thought...nothing,” Jack said.

Reaper was going to demand what Jack meant by that when he saw those blue eyes. Jack looked normal for the most part but he can see the sadness and disappointment in those eyes. Reaper decided he liked those eyes then.

“Is me having pups hard to imagine for you?” Reaper asked.

“What? No,” Jack said. “I just thought you were on your own in a sense. You seem like the independent type.”

“I was but I refuse to be a savage and let a child scavenge for itself when it can't hardly take of themselves,” Reaper explained.

“So you adopted the kids?” Jack asked, feeling a bit of kinship.

“I did. Is that wrong?” 

“Not at all. That is actually how I got Hana and Lucio. I've adopted them and Jesse, well, I'm thinking about adopting him if he wants to.”

Reaper looked shocked now to see that they have something in common. It didn't take long before he started to chuckle and while Jack liked that sound, he didn't know if he was laughing at him or not.

“What?” Jack demanded. “What's so funny?”

“I have always thought humans were selfish. They pollute the ocean, fish more than they have to, and hunt us down for various reasons but mainly for sport. I can see now that not all humans are like that and it had to take a seal pup of a human to show me,” Reaper laughed.

Jack now felt a little fuzzy and warm with this turn of events. He smiled and said, “A seal pup? I thought I would be something cool like a dolphin or a seahorse.” This had Reaper laugh even harder. “What?”

“You? A dolphin,  _ tel vaz _ but not a seahorse. Those merfolk are mostly scaredy cats and the males are the worst.”

Jack was surprised that Reaper spoke in another language and something similar Jesse would speak in when he feel rushed or angry. “You know Spanish?”

Reaper looked at Jack with an eyebrow raised. “ _ Si, _ ” he said simply.

“Do you think you can teach me?” Jack asked. “Jesse speaks in Spanish too and I've been having trouble trying to learn on my own.”

Reaper looked a little shocked that Jack asked him to teach him something he can get from someone else. But he said simply, “I can,  _ pero se puede seguir el ritmo viejo?” _

Jack looked confused at Reaper which caused the merman to smile and think how much fun he was going to have with him.

 

* * *

 

Jesse wouldn't normally hang out with someone like Mei. She was a bit shy and always apologizing for something. She also turned out to be a bit of a nerd. All he asked what kind of fishes they had at this side of the ocean and she went on and on about the ecosystem and how it's changing because of a series of events. Jesse didn't mean to go home with Mei and watch  _ Planet Earth: Deep Ocean  _ but he will admit, Mei is an awesome girl and someone who he wouldn't mind calling a friend.

“That was pretty cool,” Jesse admitted after watching the movie.

“Wasn't it? I love the Planet Earth shows. It's so amazing on what you can learn,” she said.

As of right now, Mei and Jesse was in Mei’s living room. Her family lives closer to the forest than the ocean but you can still see it from the front of the houses windows. Her house was a nice two story house with blue painting and trimming. The house was three bedroom, one bath with two of the rooms downstairs and one upstairs. Jesse hasn't seen the upstairs because that's Mei’s area and even though she's seventeen, she's not allowed to have boys in her room. Which is a shocked since apparently she's allowed boys over when her parents aren't home.

“That movie made me want to be a marine biologist for a moment there. Just a moment though,” Jesse joked as he threw a piece of popcorn in the air and ate it.

“I know. It would be cool to see if the legend was true,” Mei sighed.

“What legend?” Jesse asked, all confused.

“Well, there's a legend here that is so feared by everyone that no one fishes or hunts in one spot here. They're afraid they will make the merfolk mad in the ocean if they fish there or the werefolk who lives in the forests.”

“Wait, there's mermaids and werewolves here?” Jesse asked. He stayed silent for a moment before laughing.

“Hey, don't laugh!” Mei-Ling huffed as she pushed Jesse. “A lot of people here believe in that!”

“Yeah, but do you?” Jesse asked. When Mei didn't answer quickly enough, Jesse was surprised. “Wait, you do?”

“Well, not completely but like the movie said, over eighty percent of the ocean hasn't been explored and so that leave billions of sea creatures to be discovered. Who's to say a merfolk isn't one?”

Jesse was silent as he thought about it. She was right and it would be cool if mermaids were real. He wondered how hot they could be.

“Why don't we hunt for one then?” Jesse asked.

“What?”

“Well, we go to this treaty area and fish. We can see if merfolk actually exists then,” Jesse suggested.

“We can't! If anyone finds out that we did that, we could get in a lot of trouble,” Mei-Ling explained.

“Why don't we do it at night then? My dad and I are going to be here for ten days. In just six of those days is a new moon. We can take my uncle's boat then and try. If we catch a mermaid, we will know that they exist and if we don't then they don't.”

“I don't know,” Mei-Ling said slowly.

“Come on Mei! It'll be fun and you get to laugh at how much I suck at fishing,” Jesse said in a slightly begging voice.

“Fine but you better get going unless you want to be grounded and get in more trouble then,” Mei suggested as she pointed to the clock.

Jesse looked to it to and saw it said it was ten past ten. Just two hours after hanging with Mei, Jesse got a text message from Jack explaining he had some things to do in town. He won't be home until late so Jesse can stay out a bit longer but not past ten thirty.

“Do you want me to walk you home?” Mei asked.

“Nah, I'll be fine,” Jesse said. “I know where it is. I'll text you when I get to my house so you know I got there.”

“Okay. Be safe!” Mei said as Jesse went out the door and started his walk back to Mako’s house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the comments and kudos. They make me smile and some make me laugh. I hope these chapters make your days a bit brighter as you guys have done to mine ^^


	9. A Slap In the Face

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update. I'm actually posting this in between my breaks. I'm helping a frienday post up a fence for her piggies.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

Lena loved Gabe and looked up to him as a father figure. In her pod, she had her mom and a couple of aunts but her father died protecting Lena when she was a baby from stupid sharks. Even though there was other older males in the pod, none of them had Lena's trust and admiration like Gabe does. There was some times though when she didn't agree with and this was one of the things.

_ “Pour le grand esprit ci-dessus!  _ If you take another bullwhip with you Jamie I swear I'll kill you!” Amelie growled.

Jamie stuck his tongue out but untangle the bullwhip that got onto his tail and threw it back at the girls. Lena and Amelie were making more baskets for items they find but Jamie keeps swimming through their pile. Lena didn't fault him though. Jamie was on lockdown and he had three more hours before he could leave the cave. 

“If you guys kept those things out of my way, then I wouldn't be swimming through them,” Jamie huffed.

“And where do you suggest we put them then? We tried to put it far from you but you keep swimming through it! I swear Gabe should have left your crippled ass to die when he found you,” Amelie said.

“Amelie!” Lena called out. She then looked to Jamie and saw his hurt face. “Jamie-”

“Rack off,” Jamie growled as he swam away.

Lena sighed and that's when Gabe came in with some more bullwhips.

“What happened?” Gabe asked as he deposited the items down.

“Jamie kept swimming through the weeds and I told him to stop,” Amelie said.

“You practically told him that you wished he was dead!” Lena said.

“What?” Gabe asked.

“Amelie said that you should have left Jamie when you found him,” Lena said as she ignored the glare she got from the other.

“Amelie, I'll be talking to you later,” Gabe hissed as he swam to the back of the cave.

He didn't have to really look far as Jamie had a special hole in the wall that he likes to hide in. Normally the others would have trouble getting in the small tunnel but with his missing arm, Jamie was able to squeeze through. Once past the small tunnel there was a small hole. Jamie was able to fit in there barely. It was his secret spot and where he keeps his stuff he didn't want the others to mess with.

“Jamie? Are you okay?” Gabe asked.

Feeling something through the current, Gabe ducked just as a rock came flying out.

“Rack off!” Jamie called out.

“Jamie,” Gabe said slowly but out came a broken shell. If Jamie was willing to throw his treasures to hit Gabriel then it was best to leave him be. Gabriel sighed and went back to the girls.

“Amelie, we're going hunting. Lena, Jamie is in a bad mood so leave him be,” Gabe ordered.

“Yes sir,” Amelie said as she got up, excited to go hunting.

“Are you sure?” Lena asked. “This is like a slap in the face for Jamie. Amelie makes him upset and instead of punishing her, you're taking her out to hunt which is something Jamie likes to do.”

“Lena, just do as you're told,” Gabe said he took Amelie away.

Gabriel heard Lena sigh but he continued his way. He lead Amelie towards the edge of their territory before he stopped.

“You need to stop picking on Jamie,” Gabriel ordered.

“I'm not picking on him. I'm toughing him up,” Amelie said.

“Jamie is fine. I don't need you to work on him,” Gabriel said.

“If you're not going to then I will. He went in someone's territory and caught a fish. You should have left him,” Amelie said.

“Well I didn't and Jamie needs us to bring him up, not down,” Gabriel said. “If I hear you hurt Jamie again, you will be punished.”

Amelie let out a small snarl but she didn't say any more. As turned around and began to hunt. They didn't plan to catch very much but even then they were gone for a while. As they were coming back, Lena came at them full force, crashing into Gabe.

“Lena? What is it?” Gabriel asked.

“It's Jamie! He left,” Lena answered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love cliffhangers. How about you?


	10. Bye Bye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We hit the three hundred mark so here's a chapter early. Please enjoy!

It was easy to get passed Lena. All Jamie had to do was grab his see through smooth stone and wait until his time was up. He knew that the spell was done when he felt as if a weight has been lifted from his chest. Then he went to the top of the cave as Lena worked on a basket and placed the stone near the opening. Careful that he didn't get cut, he moved out of the way and let nature work.

The sun hit the stone and a green light began to appear and disappear near Lena. She let out a yelp at first but then began to study it. Knowing she would be too curious of the light to pay attention to him, he left the cave.

Holding his most prized treasure, he began to swim away as fast as he could. He had decided to leave the pod, self proclaiming he was now old enough and wise enough to be on his own. It didn't have to do anything that barracuda said. No sir! 

Okay maybe a little.

But Jamie told himself he wanted to leave anyway and most sharks do well solo so that's that.

He swam for a bit before but then began to slow down when his tail began to cramp. As long as he doesn't cut himself, Jamie should be able to hide well enough from Gabe and that would be for only a while. He didn't think he would do much searching for him anyway.

“Oh hey, it's the Zebra Shark. Hi!” a familiar voice called out.

Jamie jumped but once he saw that it was that Shimada guy and his brother, he calmed down a bit and even smiled.

“Hey, what's up?” Jamie said.

“Are you trying to hunt again?” the long haired Shimada asked.

“Nah, just passing through,” Jamie said with a shrug.

“Cool, wanna hang out?” the friendly one asked.

“Sure,” Jamie said. Gabe seemed to be weary of these two and if he stays close to them for now then he should be fine.

“My name is Sparrow and this is my brother Royal pain in the fin,” he said. When he got a glare from the brother, he rolled his eyes. “Okay, not really but that's what he is. His name is Heir.”

Jamie didn't mind the nicknames he was given. It was normal for merfolk the give others nicknames or titles when they meet. Their birth name was suppose to be sacred and to be known only by their mother and their mates.

“I'm,” Jamie had to pause and think. He didn't want Gabe finding him so he can't use his normal nickname. He didn't have to worry though because he was good at coming up with names. “I'm Junkrat.”

“How fitting,” Heir said as he crossed his arms.

“Well Junkrat, what do you want to do?” Sparrow asked.

“Wanna race?” Junkrat asked. “First one to the border of your territory wins!”

“How about to Ariel’s rock?” Sparrow asked.

“Ariel’s rock?” Junkrat asked, confused.

“We're not having a race. It will be sundown soon and everyone has a curfew,” Heir ordered.

“It's a spot just a ways out of our territory and in the migrating grounds for whale folks. It's a big Rock near some coral that you can sunbathe on, that is, if you dare,” Sparrow explained.

“Oooh, that sounds cool,” Junkrat said in awe. “Race you there!”

Junkrat then took off, leaving the two brothers behind. Sparrow just smiled and went after Junkrat as he was confident that he will win this race because he was faster than the Zebra Shark and he knew where the rock was. Heir let out a sigh and followed close behind his brother. He didn't care for the race but he refused to let him be on his own in a dangerous place, Blessed or not.

Even though Sparrow was faster than Junkrat, he allowed the other to win since he had many disadvantages. Junkrat didn't seem to mind though and smiled as he slammed his hand onto the rock.

“I win! I win!” he giggled with glee.

“Yeah yeah. It was just beginners luck,” Sparrow joked as he pretended to be out of breath.

Heir just rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms. Junkrat noticed that and thought it had something to do when he was annoyed; or in a bossy mood which seemed to be the better choice. “Okay, you two had your stupid race. Now can we head back? We're going to be late as is and Father isn't going to be pleased,” Heir stated.

“That does sound like something a pain in the fin would say,” Junkrat mused outloud.

Heir’s face grew red in anger as Sparrow laughed.

“Let's check the rock out,” Junkrat said as he started to swim up.

Sparrow went to follow the other but Hanzo grabbed his arm. “Come on Sparrow. We need to leave,” he said.

Sparrow looked at his brother and sighed.

“Hey Junkrat, why don't we come back tomorrow? It is pretty late and I'm hungry,” Sparrow said.

“Awww, you're just saying that because you're a sissy,” Junkrat teased.

“I am not!” Sparrow said.

“I bet the bottom half of ya is that of a seahorse,” Junkrat continued.

Sparrow huffed and began to swim towards Junkrat ready to wipe off that pleased smirk off his face.

“Sparrow!” Heir yelled.

“Don't worry Bro, I'm just going up to get Junkrat to shut up,” Sparrow said as he looked behind him.

“Oi! Look out!” Junkrat called out.

Sparrow didn't have time to head Junkrat's warning as he felt something sharp grab his tail. He let out a hiss as he looked down and saw a hook attached to it. His blood was seeping out, making the water slightly pink as the hook had some nails in it to ensure to catch the prey. Whoever was hunting though, they planned on catching something big for the hook was twice the size of his head.

“Sparrow!” Heir called out but this time in worry.

Both Heir and Junkrat swam to Sparrow to help him while Sparrow twisted and turned, trying to reach the hook. Feeling the struggle, the person pulled onto the chain attached to the hook as hard as they could. This caused Sparrow to go flying towards the top. In fear, he spread his arms out, effectively knocking Junkrat out and dazing Heir. By the time the latter came to, he saw his brother breaking free of the water with the only evidence that he was there was his blood still lingering in the water and some of his scales slowly drifting down the sea.

“Genji!” Heir whispered, fear clear in his shaky voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am debating on taking down the one hundred kudo equals anextra chapter for two reasons: 1) I feel like I'm fishing for some kudos when it should be for people who like the story; and 2) I'm running out of chapters I'll let you all know by the next chapter update. I'm sorry if this is inappropriate to post this here.


	11. Friends Until the End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING! THIS IS WHERE THE TAG OF BLOOD AND GORE COME IN! I will make a indent where it starts and ends. Please be careful.

Junkrat wasn't out for very long before he woke up to see the blood was still lingering but both of the Shimada brothers gone. Junkrat let out a string of curses that would have made Gabe slap him behind his head as he searched for them.

After hearing a slap along with a splash, he looked up just in time to see Heir’s tail disappear near what one of his aunts called a Butt.

“Shit! Okay, okay calm down and remember what Auntie told you,” Junkrat told himself. “Hit the Butt to tip it over and you can get yummy treats inside. Avoid the Asses, that Butt is too big.”

Okay, maybe that won't help Junkrat too much. He doesn't want to get a treat, he wants to help Heir and Sparrow. Well, maybe that was a lie too. Junkrat was feeling a bit hungry and he never had a treat from the Butt before.

“Focus!” Junkrat yelled at himself before he heard a splash.

_ He looked up, almost expecting the Shimada brothers swimming down with a treat but what he saw made his stomach turn. Floating down was a blue tail, cut off just above where Junkrat's bottom fins were. The tail weakly twirled down and when it turn just right so he could see a bit of the bone peaking out, pink from the blood still, Junkrat almost vomited. As the tail sunk even lower and out of sight, Junkrat decided he had enough thinking. _

He swam a bit lower to give him more distance between him and the Butt before swimming as fast as he could out of the water as close to the Butt he could without nicking himself. What he saw was worse than the tail he saw earlier.

_ Both boys were on the floating item with some sort of cloth in their mouths. Sparrow was behind the giant fat man and was bleeding badly. His body was covered in gashes that covered from head to tip fin. Junkrat knew he was out for a while but this looked like the work of someone who had some time. Each gash was in specific places that were either deep or shallow where arteries laid. Sparrow was missing his hand on his right side and an ear. What was worse was on the other arm, flesh was just barely on the bone that wasn’t suppose to see the light of day. With Sparrow’s eyes closed, Junkrat assumed he was dead so he needed to focus on getting Heir out alive. _

Heir in the meantime was covered by the land dweller who had a bloodied machete above his head, ready to dwell another hurtful blow to him. Junkrat won't allow this though and showed it with a hiss as he began to come down.

The man turned around, showing that he had a mask of some sort of an animal that Junkrat had never seen as well as that animal tattooed on its stomach with some flames and two shiny silver pieces. Junkrat didn't pay too much attention though as he reached out and grabbed one of his arms.

Junkrat couldn't do much else since he didn't angle himself right to do more but it was enough to distract the man. Heir looked all scared and confused as Junkrat tried to take the land dweller to the ocean where he was stronger but he only had one arm and the masked creature was much stronger than him. It was able to easily lift Junkrat up and throw him next to Heir.

“Okay, that butched up that plan,” Junkrat groaned, his back and butt hurting from the rough landing.

“Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the mouth,” the masked creature said, its voice raspy with a mean growl to it.

“What?” Junkrat asked confused.

His confusion didn't last long before a fist collided with Junkrat's mouth. Junkrat let out a cry as he felt something of his teeth was knocked out and he was trapped in a small daze.

“This is my lucky day,” the creature chuckled, “three merman in the same spot. I think I found a close spot to a clan.”

_ The man turned around and picked Sparrow up by his arm and looked at him. Without warning, it was able to hack his arm off while Sparrow cried in agony with a couple of hits. Once the arm was off, it just allowed the other to to the floor as Heir called out from around the cloth; Junkrat saw his wrists were tied by the chain of the hook that got Sparrow and the said hook was placed onto a metal ring so that Heir couldn't move very far. _

“Leave Sparrow alone you ugly cunt!” Junkrat yelled.

Junkrat tried to ignore the pain and the dizziness as he tried to get to Sparrow. All he could really do was a half ass army crawl. The creature looked to Junkrat though and picked Sparrow by the back of his neck. He placed the blade to his chest, the sharp end pointing downwards.

“Where is the rest of your clan?” the creature asked.

“What?” Junkrat asked.

“Wrong answer,” the creature said.

_He began to saw his skin off inch by inch. Sparrow tried to thrash his way away from the blade but it was clear to Junkrat that either his lower spine or tail was broken as it just flopped around uselessly and his arm could barely moved with how bad it was shaking. What made matter worse was the blood that was spilling around from both arm wounds, making it almost too slippery for Junkrat to continue his crawl_.

“Stop!” Junkrat screamed as he punched the creature's leg when he got close enough.

_ The masked person just kicked Junkrat at his head and threw Sparrow’s flesh onto him. Junkrat looked sick at its feet which made the creature smile cruelly even though its mask hid it. _

“Where is your clan?” the creature asked again.

“I'm not in a clan! I run solo!” Junkrat answered. 

“I doubt it. You're too crippled and weak to live by yourself,” the creature jeered.

This made Junkrat see red as he suddenly jumped at the creature. The creature was ready for his attack and brought its arm up to protect its upper body. What it didn't expect was that Junkrat knew it would do that and so he went for its legs with his tail to keep him at one spot. The creature began to stumble back and its hand went flying to stable itself on the edge of the Butt. This allowed Sparrow to be partly off the floating device and with one powerful kick from the shark, he went over board.

“You will regret that,” the creature growled.

“I don't think I will,” Junkrat smiled before he clamped his teeth around the creature's arm.

Junkrat giggled as he thought of himself as a cookie cutter shark as the creature growled in anger. It tried to push Junkrat's head off but it was risking too much to do that. Instead, it brought up the machete it used on Sparrow and went to stab him in the stomach.

Now Junkrat was familiar to pain, and even joked on how it was his best friend when he got the Phantom pain, but he didn't like it. So when he saw what the creature planned, he let go and pushed himself to the side. He hissed when he felt a new cut open on his side and the salt began to burn.

“Bloody hell mate, you could have killed me there,” Junkrat chuckled as he held onto the side of the Butt.

“That is the plan,” the creature said as it put the machete down. 

The creature then reached into a big box that had a steering wheel attached to it and brought out something Junkrat never seen before. It was short with two big holes at the end and seemed to have a small handle that fit in the giant's hand. The two holes were pointed at Junkrat and even though he didn't know what it was, he knew it had to be something dangerous if it was pointed at him.

“Tell me where your clan is before I blow your head off,” the creature demanded.

Junkrat looked at the thing confused so the creature reached down and grabbed Sparrow’s arm before throwing in the air. Without taking its eyes off of Junkrat, it shot the limb and Junkrat's eyes widen when he saw the limb tear apart from the shrapnel.

“Well, that wasn't short of amazing,” Junkrat whistled, “but a bit much don't you think? I mean, if you shoot me head with that, I can't do much talking now can I? And if I can't talk then how can you get an answer out of me? Plus, it would be a bit messy! How would you be able to clean your Butt from all the blood and-”

Junkrat quickly shut up as the weapon was placed onto his mouth.

“I don't want your rambling. Tell me where your clan is or I'll kill you. I still have the other fish if you don't talk,” it growled.

Junkrat gulped but something moved rather quickly from the corner of his eye that caught his attention. It was Heir and somehow he had gotten free from the chains with little sound and no detection. Junkrat grew a bit hopeful as he and Heir caught each other's eyes but instead of helping Junkrat, he quickly crawled over the edge and went into the ocean. Junkrat would never make a small whimper sound from the betrayal that just happened, but Jamison did.

Seeing that it no longer had his attention, the creature looked behind it and the yelled out in anger when it saw Heir has escaped. It pulled the weapon back and hit Junkrat in the nose with it, breaking it easily which had him actually start crying, the feeling of abandonment and pain being too much to hold back.

“Tell me where your clan is NOW!” the creature yelled.

“I have no clan!” Junkrat finally yelled back. “I have no clan, no pod, no one! I'm a lone shark okay? If you needed information of the clan, then you shouldn't have killed the gray one!”

The creature growled and placed the weapon onto Junkrat's temple and the kid did nothing to stop it. He was alone truly now. His own parents didn't want him and tried to eat him, Gabe clearly didn't want him, and the two people he thought he could call friends abandoned him here with this killer. He was done with the disappointment and if he died here, well, at least it was from trying to do some good. At least he could stare down the big lug and say he greeted death right in its face to the Great Spirit when he sees it.

They stayed like that in silence for a moment before the creature said, “You're lying.”

“I'm not,” Junkrat argued with a frown.

“You're injuries are old and too severe for you to be able to survive on your own. You had someone helping you,” the giant said. Junkrat didn't argue with that so he said, “I'm going to keep you then. I'll torture you and break every bone in your body if I have to but I will get the information of the other merfolk that is in this area.”

At first, Junkrat didn't like that idea. He hated the thought of torture and the thought of Lena getting hurt but he realized, Lena would be the only one he didn't want to see hurt. Gabe saved him sure, but he was thinking it was because he needed a pet because that was how he was treated. Amelie didn't like him and he knew she practically hated him because he ate too much of their food. By the Great Spirit, his own family tried to eat him because he was too annoying! And the only two non-pod friends he made, well, one died and the living one showed how much he cared.

“What if you don't have to?” Junkrat whispered, almost as if he was shocked of the plan that was forming in his head.

“What?” the creature asked in shock.

“I said what if you don't have to,” Junkrat asked, his voice more harsh. “I got information you need and you, you have the muscles to kill any merfolk you meet! I'm tired of being pushed around and almost killed by my own kind. How about I tell you where they are, I get to torture them when you catch them and then you get to kill them. That way, their death is on both of us! Fifty fifty. How about that?”

The creature was silent for a moment before it said, “Even if I do agree to this, you're going to die in the end anyway.”

“Suuure, that's all right,” Junkrat said with a smile. “I don't doubt you'll let me escape your clutches and truthfully, I would hate to be a lone merfolk. I'll go bonkers! Besides, it allows me to live a little longer and have some fun!”

Junkrat then moved a bit so he could reach out his hand and lean comfortably on the Butt as he said, “My name is Junkrat. Do we have a deal?”

The creature stared at Junkrat for a moment before it reached out and grabbed his hand.

“I'm Roadhog, and you have a deal,” Roadhog chuckled.


	12. Bitey McBite Bite

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys voted for this and here it is. Please enjoy!

Now Jesse wouldn't say this was the best idea ever, but it couldn't be the worst he came up with. After some begging and using his best kicked puppy dog look, he was able to convince Jack to let him stay the night with Mei. Jack of course had to get information about it from Mei’s parents that this was okay and informed that Jesse was going to be sleeping in the guest room downstairs. They seemed to trust their daughter and Jack warned Jesse if he did something to make the Zhou’s angry or got their daughter pregnant, he will meet the old castrating gun he has in the stables.

If Jack only knew he swung the other way, then he would have no worries but Jesse wasn't ready to come out of the closet yet so he just agreed and left.

Jack had offered to take Jesse to the Zhou’s house but that wasn't his first stop. No, it was starting to become the meeting up time, he left and went down to the boatyard for the locals who didn't live near the ocean stored most of their sea vessels.

Jesse wondered a bit before he found the boat he was looking for. It was a small sailboat that was painted white like normal boats but it also had light blue snowflakes painted on it with care. The boat was small, not the smallest here but it was almost too small for what they planned to do with it. However, this boat was Mei’s and she promised that it was good.

“Howdy Mei,” Jesse said as he saw the Asian woman checking her sails.

Mei looked over to Jesse and she smiled as she walked to the edge. “Hey Jesse! Welcome to  _ Snowball!  _ Come aboard.”

“Don't mind if I do,” Jesse said with a grin.

By using the ramp, Jesse walked onto the boat and looked around. It was nice and kind of fancy. If he was still in the Deadlock gang, he would have totally stole it and either use it as a personal item with the family or sold it. He shook his head at that thought, and went into the cabin with Mei.

“Well, not only do you like  _ Planet Earth _ , but Japanese cartoons too,” Jesse teased.

Mei blushed as Jesse placed the backpack he brought along next to an anime boy with orange hair and a somewhat angry look in his eyes. Mei’s cabin had different kinds of posters and the only ones that wasn't from some kind of anime was a map of the world and a couple of sea creatures. There was even a figurine of a woman with a giant gun and pink hair velcroed to one of the stands.

“Well, this is my home away from home. I like to add my personal touch to it,” Mei said with a small blush. “I'm sorry.”

“There's no reason to be sorry darlin’. My sister Hana likes the video games from that country so I know a bit about it,” Jesse said.

Mei seemed to relax and Jesse dug out a net from his backpack. It was huge, one of the biggest he could buy from the small allowance he brought with him. It was smaller than the commercial nets but it should be able to hold something human sized.

“This is all I can get. Will it do?” Jesse asked.

“Yeah,” Mei said with a nod. “We can start out by the Ariel rock and slowly go to the treaty grounds by the time it gets dark. We just have to be careful of underwater rocks.”

“All right,” Jesse said as he put the items down.

“I'm going to get the boat started,” Mei stated as she left the cabin.

Jesse only stayed there for a bit longer so he wouldn't be in the way and only when he was sure they were out in sea, he put the life jacket on and left. His eyes widen though when the first thing he saw, was the sea for miles.

“Well, ain't that a pretty sight,” Jesse said in awe.

“Isn't it?” Mei let out a small hum. “We'll be near the rock in about fifteen minutes at this current speed. Get the net ready please.”

“On it,” Jesse said as he went back into the cabin.

He returned with the net in tow and began to set it out nicely on the deck like the man at the fish shop told him to. Once he was sure there was no holes and that it wasn't tangled up, he tied a few pieces of the rope he brought along around it so that it can all go under water. As he finished tying the rope to the sail boat, Mei cut the engine off.

“This is as close as I can get,” she said as she came to the main deck. “We'll use the wind to take us as close to shore as possible for now.”

“All right. Mind helping me throw this puppy overboard?” Jesse asked.

Mei nodded and they both easily threw the net into the sea. Once finished, Mei went into the cabin to get some drinks for them while Jesse watched the small speck that was the shore.

“What do you think we should do when we catch a merfolk?” Mei asked as she handed Jesse a cold soda.

“We should try to be as friendly as can be and see if it wants to talk. If not, let it free after a photo,” Jesse answered.

“Isn't it rude to take a photo of someone without permission?” Mei asked.

“I reckon you're right. Ask for the photo and then take it.”

Mei didn't argue with that and the boring part of the hunt began: waiting. They had to wait every fifteen minutes or so before even considering pulling the net up and for the past hour and a half, they only got fish and a couple of rocks. It was amazing the first few times for Jesse but now he was getting bored.

“Maybe we should have gotten same bait in it,” Jesse said as he began to pull up the rope after waiting twenty minutes.

“What would merfolk eat? How would we know if they couldn't just take it and run anyway?” Mei asked.

“I don't know but this is boring. We hardly caught anything and we're still miles from shore! Shouldn't we just go to that treaty spot?”

“No, it won't be dark until another hour. If you want, we can quit now and-”

Before Mei could finish, the ropes began to tug roughly, almost yanking both of their arms out of their sockets.

“Woh Nelly!” Jesse cried out as he fought with the net to get it back up. “Careful Mei not to let go!”

They struggled with the net and almost lost it a couple of times as is. Jesse swore he will have rope burns after this but it would be worth to see whatever is this strong. It didn't take long before they pulled the net up and into the boat which left Jesse heart in his throat and bats in his stomach.

Sitting on the deck of the boat trapped in the net was a merman with long black hair and a beautiful blue tail. It was glaring at Jesse with the darkest brown eyes as it fought with the net to be freed. Jesse was so enticed with the looks of the merman, he didn't hear Mei until she was shaking his shoulder.

“Jesse, now is not the time to be shell shocked. They're badly hurt!” she said.

Jesse blinked his eyes and saw that they didn't just catch one merman but two. The second one was covered with all kinds of seaweed from head to toe-er fin. They were barely able to see the merman under it and what they did see was wounds they reopened when they caught the two in the net and an almost scaleless tail. When Jesse first saw it had had assumed they just caught some seaweed and did not notice that it was covering wounds on the two.

“Shit! Hurry and get the net off!” Jesse ordered.

Mei and Jesse went to the net and tried to get the thing off. When they heard a groan from the badly injured merman though, Jesse had enough.

“Stay away from the rope,” Jesse ordered as he pulled out a pocket knife from his back pocket.

The black haired merman let out an angry hiss that scared Jesse enough to where he almost dropped the knife.

“Look, I don't mean you no trouble all right? I'm just going to cut the rope off you and your friend okay?” Jesse said. 

Jesse had grabbed a piece of the rope and when he placed the knife to cut it on there, the merman striked out like a snake and bit Jesse's hand.

“Holy fucking shit of lords!” Jesse yelled in pain as he dropped the knife. The merman let go of Jesse then and he brought his bleeding hand to his chest with a hiss. “He fucking bit me!”

Jesse saw a half smirk on his face and with his uninjured hand, he pointed to him and growled, “Awww hell no! You don't get to act all high and might now asshole. I'm only trying to help!”

The merman growled back as his tail slammed down onto the deck while he bit onto the net, as if he was telling him that he wouldn't be in it if it weren't for him.

“Now Bitey McBite Bite, don't you give me no attitude! There is no real reason to be a jerk you know,” Jesse said.

The merman hissed and looked like he was about to bite the net again when it was suddenly off of him. Both Jesse and the merman looked confused as Mei held up a small blue pocket knife of her own.

“If you are done with your lovers spat, we need to help the seaweed one,” Mei said.

Jesse was starting to sputter as Mei knelt down next to the badly injured merman. Seeing his companion in danger, the other merman threw himself over the other one and hissed.

“I don't mean any trouble but your friend is really injured. He needs some medical attention or he will die,” Mei said.

The merman looked a bit worried while Jesse asked, “What should we do? It's not like we can take him to the hospital. If we walk in with a real live merman, they would take him to the government and with how injured he is, they might just dissect him.”

“I don't know. Normally an injured sea creature would be taken to a marine veterinarian but these two aren't just any normal fish,” Mei stated. “I know a real good one but I doubt even he would know what to do.”

“What if we have a marine veterinarian and a regular doc look at them?” Jesse asked.

“But who do we trust enough to keep this a secret?” Mei asked.

“I know someone. She use to be a medical person in some kind of military branch and she's really nice. I know I can wrangle her into keeping this a secret. Just do you think your marine fella would too?”

“Dr. Zenyatta will,” Mei said.

“Then get this boat in gear! I'll call Mercy and get her to come to this town,” Jesse said as he brought his phone out.

He noticed as Mei tried to get the boat to go that the merman was trying to move the other off the boat. He could hardly move and Jesse was shocked to see him just fall over with a groan. That's when he realized that the merman wasn't suppose to be as pale as he was. While Jesse dialed Mery’s number he went to the merman and gently placed his hand onto his shoulder. The merman let out a weak hiss but didn't fight this time.

“Mei and I will help you two, I promise,” Jesse whispered, vowing to do just that and also kill whoever harmed these two.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to be moving soon so my schedule might be out of wack for a while. I'm going to try to keep it up but this is a little heads up if a chapter doesn't go up on time.


	13. Too Cold

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew, I just barely able to put this chapter up on the due date. Please enjoy while I now go to sleep.

Hanzo didn't know what to do really. He had tried to fight the masked hunter but it clearly knew that while he and his brother was blessed as it must have known to stuff their mouths so they couldn't call onto their Spirits. That normally wouldn't matter too much as their mother drilled them through so many courses that they could easily beat their own enforcers all at once if they were together. Even with that though, the masked hunter was able to tie them down and began to torture Genji. Every time he closed his eyes, he could still hear the hunter demand where his clan was but what was stronger was Genji’s crying in pain as he begged his brother not to tell. He was ashamed that he couldn't help his brother and he would never admit it, but he was ashamed that he left Junkrat behind to the mercy of the beast.

When Hanzo had landed in the water, he ignored his own pain with pure will as he went to his brother’s body. He had grabbed him and spent the night and most of the morning doing his best to wrap his wounds and try to keep him alive. There was a couple of times he was sure he lost his brother but was proven wrong by a cough or a moan.

Hanzo knew they shouldn't stay by Ariel’s rock for very long so once he was sure that Genji wouldn't die at his slow pace of swimming, he had left the place. Thinking of it now, he wished he had stayed there for a bit longer. If he had, they wouldn't be on another Butt with two land dwellers taking them to who knows where.

Hanzo knew he couldn't move Genji anymore with how weak he was from the lack of blood and sleep deprivation. He was forced to stay put now, with Genji’s head in his lap while he leaned against the edge and glared at the male land dweller.

“Well sweetheart, I feel like we got on a rocky start. My name is Jesse Mccree, what's yours?” the male land dweller asked.

Hanzo kept his glare onto this Jesse fellow but he could tell that he was telling the truth. His tongue ached to say that name, to command him to let them free so he could take Genji back to the clan to be healed. He didn't though but he wouldn't allow this filthy animal the breath it was needed to speak to it.

“Mind if I call you Bitey McBite Bite then? Perhaps Bitey for short?” Jesse asked.

Once again Hanzo didn't answer him and he fought the urge to look at the female land dweller when she spoke.

“He might not be able to understand us,” she said softly. 

“Well, that would be swell,” Jesse sighed as he leaned against the wall. “We practically kidnapping them this way.”

“We kind of are,” the woman sighed.

“But it's for their good. They're injured and need our help,” Jesse said. He then looked to Hanzo and said, “Right Bitey?”

Hanzo just glared at him, not showing any signs that he was able to understand Jesse. Jesse just sighed and grumbled something under his breath that he didn't understand. He didn't care though for Genji let out a cough and then a moan. That had gotten Hanzo’s attention then as he brushed his brother's hair from his forehead.

Genji’s face had to be covered by seaweed too but Hanzo made sure that Genji would be able to breath either through his nose or mouth. He carefully pulled some of the loose seaweed from his hair and smiled at a fond memory of theirs.

It had to he only a year ago when Genji saw land dwellers on a Butt for the first time. Hanzo had scolded his younger brother when he came back but Genji ignored him and began to speak of how some land dwellers had some weird hair colors. One female had pink hair! Genji then began to tell Hanzo on how he thought they could turn his hair into a different color like the land dwellers did. Hanzo had thought that Genji was just being wishful of a land dweller again but he had roped Hanzo into helping him try to turn his hair green that night. They even went as far as putting seaweed in his hair in hopes that the color would bleed through.

“You really care for him,” Jesse said suddenly, breaking his train of thought. “Is he your family or your lover?”

Hanzo just huffed at the question and went back to try to comfort his sleeping brother.

“We're almost to Dr. Zenyatta’s docking bay. He's going to meet us outside,” Mei said.

Hanzo lifted himself a bit to see how close the land was. He never been this close to the shores and he knew that they were out of his waters now. He let out a growl and almost called his Spirit. Almost.

Even though Hanzo didn't want to admit it, he knew they needed the help. Genji wouldn't get maybe a second look from their Clan’s Healer, deeming Genji would be too much trouble to try to save. Even Hanzo might not get much better treatment. Even if his tail was healed, it was unknown if he would stay as the heir to the clan for he got some of his tail cut off by a human hunter. Now if he got it cut off by another merfolk and he brought their dead body in, it would have been a war wound that would be honored. Now though, now he most likely would be shamed.

“It's okay Bitey, we're not going to try to keep you here long,” Jesse promised.

This didn't settle right to Hanzo but what choice did he have? As soon as Genji won't die from his wounds, then he was taking his brother and running.

It had taken only twelve minutes before they were able to get to the dock spot and a man that was the strangest Hanzo even seen before came to greet them. His had dark colored skin but he didn't have any hair on his head. Instead though, he had nine blue dots on his forehead which confused Hanzo greatly. He was tall, taller than the female land walker but just an inch shorter than Jesse. The way the man walked, it had seemed that he was floating in air. He went onto the boat as soon as he was able and Hanzo saw his choice of wardrobe was baggy light brown pants with open toe shoes. He was also wearing a red shirt that had a symbol of what he would later learn was Ying and Yang but the two dots was that of animals. It almost looked like his Clan’s symbol which put the merman in awe and made him wary.

“Greetings Mei. You said you need some help?” the man asked, his voice smooth. He didn't need to wait long though to know what the problem was for Genji let out a weak cough. The man looked to the two men with almond shaped eyes and the honey colored eyes filled with worry. “Oh my!”

The new land walker went to Hanzo and his brother which made him hiss a warning.

“Careful doc, he bites,” Jesse warned.

“I don't mean you any harm. I only wish to help,” the doc said as he knelt next to them. He opened his palms to show he didn't have any weapons on him. “I'm Dr. Zenyatta. I can try to heal you two and make you better.”

Hanzo didn't know if he should trust him or not but the doctor gently reached out and placed his hand near the tail where his wound is. Without a second thought, Hanzo used that tail to lash at the doctor. Dr. Zenyatta though seemed to know what he was going to do so he backed away fast enough and grabbed his tail. Hanzo let out a hiss but Zenyatta didn't even flinch. He just gently put the tail back down.

“Please allow me to help you. You two look like you've been through a lot,” Zenyatta pleaded.

Hanzo stared at Zenyatta for a moment before he gently laid Genji down in front of him. His heart ached when he let out a small moan of pain but he was so badly cut up that no matter where he laid him, he would be hurt.

“I'm here!” a female voice suddenly yelled.

Hanzo glared as a new female land walker came onto the boat.

“Mercy! Thanks for coming,” Jesse said.

“No worries,” she said before looking at the two merfolk. “Oh my god.”

“Yeah, I know. They're real and one is really hot,” Jesse said. He suddenly blushed as Mei giggled and tried to save himself by saying, “For being water creatures. Because you know, they live somewhere cold. Which I guess why Bitey is hot. I mean, both of them!” He then groaned as he slapped his hand onto his face. “Lord, wrap your arm around my shoulder and cover my mouth with your hand.”

“I was going to say they look badly hurt but that's a cute way to say it,” Mercy said with a small teasing smile. She then went to Zenyatta’s side as he gently was pulling the seaweed off Genji. “He's going to have surgery.”

“It seems so but I can't do it,” Zenyatta sighed.

“I can. You take care of Bitey and I'll take Seaweed here,” Mercy said.

“Agreed. I'll take him inside though,” Zenyatta offered.

He took Genji then which made Hanzo actually wiggle around to keep an eye on his brother.

“Here Bitey, I'll take you in,” Jesse offered.

Hanzo didn't fight Jesse picking him up and he was surprised how gentle he was being. He also smelled really nice which made him dig his face into his neck to try to figure the scent out.

“Hey!” Jesse said in shock that got Hanzo out of his slight daze. 

Hanzo huffed as he looked for Genji again. Mei laughed as she followed them inside but only as far as the waiting room. The building itself wasn't too terribly big for being someplace for sea life. Inside it seemed bigger as the waiting room had a receptionist desk at one wall and chairs for people to sit on at the other. On the third wall near a door was a tank with sea fish swimming in it. This angered Hanzo to see that but he didn't get to keep looking around as they passed the door. Inside there was some bigger tanks that one had a hurt seal in it. There was also stand up showers to help the animals and a giant sink for what? Hanzo didn't know.

Hanzo saw his brother Genji being wheeled past a plastic framed door and he wiggled in Jesse's arms to get to him.

“Be at peace my friend. Dr. Mercy is just going to take him to the back where the surgery tools are,” Zenyatta said. “Please Jesse, put him onto the exam table there.”

“Right doc,” Jesse said.

Jesse had tried to put Hanzo onto the table, keyword, tried. As soon as he felt the cold table, he grabbed onto Jesse and maneuvered himself so he was on his back, his arms wrapped around Jesse's neck so tight that he was almost choking him while the remaining part of his tail was wrapped around his waist.

“Woh there!” Jesse called out as he almost lost his balance. “Jesus Christ on a stick, you're just like a snake.”

Zenyatta seemed to know what had upset Hanzo as he said, “Jesse, please sit on the table with Bitey and make sure he doesn't touch it.”

Although confused, Jesse did what he was told. As he sat down, Hanzo released his grip slightly and stared at where Genji was taken. He was so distracted that he forgot about Dr. Zenyatta until he felt his seaweed bandage being pulled off. Hanzo let out a small hiss of pain as it felt as if someone was rubbing salt onto a road rash.

“I apologize,” Dr. Zenyatta said. “It seems this will need to be surgically closed. The seaweed acted like a good bandage to stop most of the bleeding but with it this open, bacteria and rot will easily take root.”

Dr. Zenyatta then left the two boys side and Hanzo placed his head onto Jesse’s shoulder. He looked conflicted as he thought about going through the surgery or allowing the slow death to come. He flinched as he felt Jesse's hand go through his hair.

“Hey, it's going to be okay,” he promised, his words soft and sweet. “This doc knows what he's doing and I won't leave ya until you're right as rain.”

Hanzo was touched by Jesse's promise but any feeling he had towards him was left when he felt something sharp by his tail. He looked down just as Zenyatta took out a needle. The world began to swim around in his vision and he felt very tired. 

Hanzo gave out a weak chuckle as he placed his head back onto Jesse’s shoulder and whispered in his ear, “Anata wa bakadesu.” Then, the world became black.


	14. G'Day Mate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we hit the one hundred kudo mark so here's a chapter early. Enjoy!

Jesse was shocked to hear Bitey talk and in a language he didn't know.

“Well, at least I know you can talk,” he sighed at the sleeping merman.

“Please put him onto the table,” Dr. Zenyatta asked. After Jesse did so, he also said, “It would be best if you at least wait in the waiting room. I have to close up the wound and it's quite messy and gruesome.”

“All right,” Jesse sighed.

When he went into the waiting room, his phone began to sound like it was sending out a Morse code before a deep southern voice began to say,  _ “This is the cell phone dictation system. It's your dad calling and maaan is heeeee pissed. See if you talk your way out of this one.” _

For once, Jesse was glad that Hana made sure that everyone had a funny ringtone for Jack’s cell number. He almost wanted to ignore it but he knew if he did, he would get a chewing for it.

“Hey Jack, what's up?” Jesse said when he answered the phone.

_ “Just checking in on you,”  _ Jack said,  _ “how's the sleepover?” _

“Fine, fine,” Jesse lied. “We're about to watch another  _ Planet Earth.  _ This one is about the arctic so I'm making sure we have blankets and hot cocoa before we watch it. Cause you know, it's going to be colder than a witches tit in a brass bra.”

_ “So you haven't called Mercy because you found two boys that are badly injured and insisted it was her who checked on them?” _

Jesse had one thought then,  _ Welp, I’m fucked. _

_ “ _ Look Jack, I can explain-”

_ “Explain it at the house. You're coming home  _ **_now._ ** _ ” _

“But-”

_ “Don't make me say it again.” _

“Yes sir,” Jesse sighed. After they hung up, Jesse told Mei, “I have to go. My dad is furious about the sleepover turned emergency room.”

“I'm sorry,” Mei said with actual pity on her face.

“But ah, do you know what  _ a nota bak des  _ mean?” Jesse asked.

“That sounds almost like Japanese,” Mei said in somewhat of a thought. “A badly butchered up one but I think it means ‘you are a fool’.”

“Well, that's mighty fine then,” Jesse huffed. “Can you wait here for Bitey and tell him it takes one to know one?”

“Sure. You be safe,” Mei said.

Jesse answered by giving her a half wave as he walked outside. It took him about a half an hour before he was able to get to the house. He was a bit confused to see a beat up old truck in the driveway but he didn't let it bother him as he went inside.

“I'm back Jack,” Jesse called. 

He went to the living room and saw Jack on the couch, talking to Mako who sat in the big recliner chair with a small tea cup in his hands.

“Welcome back Jesse,” Mako said with a smile.

“Hey Uncle Mako. I thought you were staying at our place,” Jesse said. He then noticed a bit of his arm was wrapped up and some blood seemed through it. “What happened to your arm?”

“A very mouthy fish got me,” Mako answered. “I had to catch one for a client which is why I'm back for now.”

“What happened to your hand Jesse?” Jack asked.

Jesse almost forgot about the hand that Bitey bit. After he and Mei were sure that Bitey wasn't going to make a mistake, she gave him her first aid kit and he wrapped it up good.

“I just got bit by a mouthy animal,” Jesse lied. “I keep forgetting that wild creatures don't like to be touched.”

Jack seemed to take his lie and for a minute, he didn't think Mako did. But his honorary uncle just end up drinking his tea.

“Don't pet any more wild animals,” Jack said in his military voice that didn't leave any room for argument. “Now tell me why Mercy had to come and that it had to be her.”

Now this is what Jesse was waiting for. His brother didn't call him the snake charmer for nothing.

“Well, Mei and I went out for a ride on her boat and when we were out there, we found a couple of kids our age pretty badly injured in another one. Turns out their boat was dead and they were attacked by some sea creature while swimming. Mei and I offered to take them to the nearest hospital but they refused. They were scared their dad would be mighty mad at them so I thought of Mercy. She was an old military medic right? So I convinced them to see her at least and we can go on from there.”

“And what are these boys names?” Mako asked.

“Well, I don't rightly know. I didn't ask. I was in too much shock to think right there,” Jesse said.

Mako hummed and Jack relaxed a bit. “I'm glad that you helped those two boys put but you should have called me too,” Jack sighed.

“I think this actually calls for a celebration,” Mako said with a smile. “Jesse here just saved two kids after all. He's practically a hero.”

Now Jesse looked a bit bashful but he felt something was off with how Mako was smiling. “Well, I wouldn't call me a hero,” he said slowly.

“Jack, how about I take Jesse to my little shack by the ocean. I have something there that he might like,” Mako suggested.

“As long as it isn't a gun or an animal, I suppose he can go down there. I might not be here when you come back though. I was thinking about doing some night fishing,” Jack said.

“All right. We'll be back before too long,” Mako said. He then took his cup to the kitchen before placing his hand on Jesse's back. “Let's get going.”

Jesse felt like something was off with Mako but Jesse didn't fight. Hana and Lucio said that Mako’s surprise gifts were the best and Jesse had yet to receive one. So he followed Mako into his old truck and they made their way to one of the many sheds on a public dock.

“Why do you have a shed here anyway. Don't you have a private dock?” Jesse asked as Mako began to unlock the door.

“I do but this is my work shed,” Mako said as he opened the door and held it open for Jesse. “I like to keep my work and fun separate.”

Jesse shrugged as he went inside the shed. It didn't have much light from the light bulb from above but he was able to see plenty. There was a small area for a boat and on the walls were giant hooks as well as different types of knives but that wasn't what caught his attention. What did catch it was a one armed merman smiling insanely at him from a small circular hole in the middle of the dock, right next to a table covered with dried blood.

“That's him mate. He's the one who snatched the Shimada brothers,” the merman snickered.

“Wait, what?” Jesse asked.

“It seems like I'm not the only one who knows about merfolk here anymore,” Mako sighed as he grabbed a pig's mask off a wall and put it on. Before Jesse could really think, a knife was placed onto his throat.

“Tell me where the other two merman are Jesse and I won't have to make you look just like the gray tailed one,” Mako growled.

Jesse thought he was in trouble before, but now he knew the true meaning of that word.


	15. Don't Fear The Reaper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there's a big wind storm happening where I live and we might loose power tonight and tomorrow. So have a chapter a day early, courtesy of mother Nature.

To say Jesse wasn’t scared was to say a bull in a China shop was a good idea. Here he was with a man he should be able to trust, holding a knife to his neck while a merman was smiling with glee. The first thing in Jesse's head told him to wiggle his way out of Roadhog’s hold, grab his gun, and kill him. He knew that wouldn't work since he hasnt had a gun since the Deadlock days, so he went with plan B.

“You know, you could have just asked,” Jesse said with a smile. “As long as you promised not to hurt them, I would gladly take you there.”

The merman in the small pool giggled and said, “Mate, you don't really know Roadhog huh? He don't plan to go there and have a cuppa with them. He plans to finish the job!”

Jesse's eyes widen at that and he ignored Roadhog telling the merman to shut up as he thought about the Shimada brothers. One was at death's door and the other, Bitey, he looks so much in pain. It wasn't just physical but mental too. Jesse so badly wanted to take the knife from Roadhog and stab him over and over again for hurting them. He knew that was a bad idea though because while Jesse got the best training he could get in a gang famous for killing, Mako is from a military branch. Jesse might be able to stab him a couple of times but then he was dead.

“Oh, well I'm guessing it's my life or theirs. I'll choose mine any day, thank you kindly,” Jesse stated.

“Good boy,” Roadhog said as he began to take the knife away.

Once it was being brought to his side, Jesse striked. He went to kick Roadhog in the balls to distract him long enough to escape but he is the tallest man he ever fought and only got his thigh instead.

“Big mistake,” Roadhog hissed as Jesse said, “Fuck.”

Roadhog then went to stab Jesse but this is what he was more confident in. Jesse took a step back and jabbed his elbow into Roadhog’s large stomach. This made him pause just enough where he hit his palm onto his arm to make it go lower and then again on his hand to make him drop the knife. There he actually move so he can get Roadhog’s balls right.

Once he was hissing in pain, Jesse made a run for it. He was able to get outside where he grabbed his phone and dialed Jack’s number.

“Come on dad, please pick up,” Jesse whispered as he heard the dial tone.

“ **COME HERE!** ” was the only warning Jesse got as Roadhog wrapped his arms around his stomach and was lifted into the air.

Jesse automatically dropped his phone to place his hands on Roadhog’s and wrapped one foot around his legs as best as he could. Jesse then yanked at Roadhog’s finger which caused him to loosen his hold because of the pain. By using his remaining foot as a plank, he turned around and planned to jab him in the face with his elbow but Roadhog stopped him with a headbutt.

Jesse was dazed and his nose was bleeding but he still tried to fight, however Roadhog grabbed both of his arms and twisted them painfully onto his back while his other hand pressed his pointer finger and thumb on two pressure points by Jesse's neck. Jesse tried to wiggle from the pain but he couldn't as he was dragged back into the shed.

“You got him mate! I knew you could,” the merman said with a smile. “That boy is a good fighter huh? I-”

“Shut up,” Roadhog growled as he shoved Jesse to the floor face first by the bloody table. As he pressed his knee on his back, he grabbed a couple of zip ties and began to work on putting Jesse's arms together. “If you followed the two merman like you were told, then I wouldn't have to do this.”

“Well sorry for not being able to keep up with a Butt! Even if I had both arms and my full tail, I probably wouldn't be able to follow it!” the merman huff.

“Then I should just kill you and get it over with,” Roadhog said.

The merman shook a bit as now Roadhog was done getting Jesse's hands together and he even used a couple of zip ties to tie up his feet too. The merman shook his head as he backed up a little.

“N-no, you still need me mate! I may not have been able to get you those Shimada’s, but I can still get you other merfolk!” he said.

“Why are you doing this?” Jesse groaned as he spit out some blood. When Roadhog didn't answer him, Jesse turned his head and glared at him. “Why are you doing this? These merfolk didn't hurt you! What has gotten you so mad that you're willing to beat me up? I'm your best friends fucking son!”

“No you're not,” Roadhog growled as he grabbed Jesse by his hair and yanked him up so that they're face to face while Roadhog knelt. “You're just his pet project, nothing more. Why would he want you Jesse? You're part of a gang that sold drugs, firearms, and even did human trafficking. You can never escape that. It's in your blood to be a killer.”

Each one of those words were cold and stabbed Jesse in his heart. Those words are what his mind tells him every day but they seemed more sinister coming from someone who he thought was family.

“I'm not,” Jesse whimpered.

“You are boy. Now this is your last chance before we really harm you. Where are the two mermen?” Roadhog demanded. When Jesse spit onto one of his covered eyes, he just picked him up and put him into the small bowl with the merman.

“Make him into a look alike Junkrat,” Roadhog ordered.

“With pleasure,” Junkrat said with a smile.

Jesse tried to get out of the bowl but he was stopped rather quickly by Junkrat sinking his teeth into his left arm. Jesse cried out in pain and tried to kick his way out but Junkrat just put his tail on the legs. The merman was able to rip a flesh of the arm off a bit under his shoulder and gladly ate it.

“Who knew, humans do taste good,” Junkrat giggled like a maniac.

As Junkrat went to town by ripping Jesse's flesh off, Roadhog demanded, “Where's the mermen?”

“Go to hell,” Jesse growled quickly before another bite was taken off.

Roadhog growled and was about to demand to know when his phone made a wind chime tone. This made Junkrat pause but all Roadhog had to say was, “Keep going.” and he did.

After seeing who was calling him, Mako left the shed and planned to go down the dock a bit as he pushed Jesse's phone into the ocean.

“What's up Jack?” Mako asked after he took his mask off.

_ “Jesse tried calling me and he didn't even talked. Is he okay?”  _ Jack asked.

“He's fine. He just went to the bathroom so he must have butt dialed you,” Mako lied.

_ “Are you sure? It sounded like there was a fight going on,”  _ Jack said.

“It was probably a fight between him and his belt,” Mako chuckled.

_ “If you say so,”  _ Jack said but he didn't sound convinced.  _ “What are you two doing?” _

“Well, before his bathroom run, I was showing the kid some of my fishing gear and the Zebra Shark I caught for a client. I don't think he liked it very much though. I need to give him a better surprise when he comes back.”

_ “Well, I'm going to try to call Jesse I guess. Make sure you two are home tonight okay?” _

“Got it Papa bear,” Mako said as a goodbye and hung up.

Once he did so, he put his mask on and took a deep breath. Lying to Jack with the mask off was hard. With the mask off, he's Mako Rutledge, a simple fisherman with a small tragic tale but a big heart. With the mask on, he was the one man apocalypse known as Roadhog. Roadhog didn't have a heart for it was stolen the day his wife and daughter was killed. Roadhog could easily lie to Jack and kill Jesse if they stood in his way of revenge. 

With Roadhog back, he went into the shed where Jesse was still screaming as Junkrat was nibbling on his bone now.

“Stop,” Roadhog ordered.

Junkrat did as he was told and Jesse let out a choked whimper. This was the worst pain he had been in his life but he didn't want to show any weakness. He was doing his best to keep all vocal complaints inside as he tried to tell his eyes to stop crying.

Seeing the damage done, Roadhog placed his hand onto Jesse's head and began to pet it like Mako had done for his daughter when she wasn't feeling good.

“This could end Jesse. Just give me the location of the two merfolk and you won't be in pain anymore,” Roadhog promised.

Jesse kept quiet as he didn't trust his voice but the glare was enough to tell Roadhog that he didn’t break him yet.

“You know Roadie, I could get the answer out of him,” Junkrat said. “Just give me his last name and out the answer will spill.”

“No,” Roadhog growled. “I'm not going to use your bloody magic unless I need to. Continue your meal.”

“Right, on it!” Junkrat said with a nod.

He went back to eating Jesse's arm as he ignored the screaming and thrashing. Junkrat was pretty hungry after all so he didn't mind his pool getting pink with blood, nor how his ears sounded like they were going to burst, or how Roadhog didn't want to use what is named  _ the Siren’s call _ . It would be able to get Junkrat anything he wants by using that magic which why so little merfolk knew each other's real name.

Roadhog sat and watched Junkrat eat Jesse's arm mouthful after mouthful. By the time his bone could be seen on his upper arm and below his elbow, Jesse was in and out of consciousness and his throat hurt from all the screaming he's done. But Jesse was strong and wouldn't give Roadhog the location of the Shimada brothers.

“Uh mate, this kid lost a lot of blood. He might die soon and then we won't know where they went,” Junkrat warned.

Roadhog seemed to be in thought for a moment before he said, “Jesse Mccree.”

Junkrat smiled as he got in Jesse's face for he was excited to use that power for the first time. “Jesse Mccree, tell me where the two merman you caught are.”

Jesse's eyes widen as he felt as if the answer was sliding up his throat like it wanted to be free. Jesse fought it for a moment but then in a raspy voice he said, “At Dr. Zenyatta’s place, the marine hospital down by the ocean.”

“I should have known,” Roadhog muttered. “Take his arm as a reward Junkrat.”

“All right!” Junkrat said.

Jesse watched in horror as Junkrat bit through his bone like it was nothing and then ripped the remaining flesh away from his body to get to his trophy. Jesse screamed in pain as he felt all that but Roadhog ignored it as he grabbed him by his remaining arm and lifted him up from the water.

“Don't worry Jesse, I'll tell Jack that you ran away. That won't be so far fetched from a Mccree wanting to go back to his old roots,” Roadhog chuckled.

He opened the back of his shed where his boat would normally leave and threw Jesse into the water. Normally he would worry about the body coming to shore but he was certain after he took care of the Shimada brothers, he could let Junkrat free to eat whatever the other fishes didn't get to.

Jesse landed on the water with a cry as he felt the salt burn his arm once again. With the arm missing and his legs still tied, Jesse would have little to no hope of escaping the ocean before he drowned. Jesse didn't care though. He lost his arm, Jack would think he was a no good gang member, but most of all, he put Bitey and his brother in harms way.

He didn't fight as he sunk in the water but he couldn't fight the instinct to hold his breath. It didn't matter much as he felt like he was sliding into black ink as his conscious slid faster and faster away from him. He saw a black blurry blob swimming at him and thought a shark may have come to get him from the scent of blood in the water.

Jesse closed his eyes and he thought he heard death say,  _ “I got you kid.” _


	16. Angel of Death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I finished writing the last three chapters, I'm posting them up this week. One today, one Wednesday, and one on Friday. So please enjoy!

As soon as it was heard that Jamie ran away, Gabe had made a battle plan.

“Amelie, you got check near the clam nest, see if he went hunting. Tracer, you check by the kelp forest,” he ordered.

“Yes sir,” the two girls said before leaving.

Gabe was a bit happy that Amelie didn't fight him but he could guess she was feeling guilty. Gabe was too and was wishing he didn't take her out for a hunt.

Gabe first went to the cave and checked around to see if Jamie was still there or hiding near it. He jumped back a bit when he saw a green light on a wall but unlike Lena, he saw that is was coming from one of Jamie’s treasures.

“Smart boy,” he muttered before leaving the cave.

Gabe was looking around it for a while before his two girls came back.

“He's not at the clams nest,” Amelie said.

“Nor the kelp forest,” Lena added.

“Okay. Lena, you get along with the Amari Clan the most so you go check there. Amelie, you still have some connections with the enforcers in the Shimada Clan right? Use them,” he ordered.

“And what are you going to do?” Amelie asked.

“I'm going to check around the deep caves. Jamie could have been dragged down there because of the currents and I'm the strongest one to get out,” Gabriel stated. “Now move!”

The two girls scattered and Gabe went to go check the caves.

That had been roughly twenty four hours ago and they had no luck. Apparently though, the Shimada heirs have gone missing too and the rumor is that the masked hunter got them which worried Gabe. Jamie was smart and cunning but if he was caught by the masked hunter, then he would be dead.

So Gabriel had a last hope. He had the girls stay at the cave in case Jamie came while he went to the meeting spot where he meets up with Jack. Sadly, he got there a few hours early.

At first he tried to hunt to get his mind off things but when he went in for the kill, he was suddenly the masked hunter and his prey was a scared Jamie. He couldn't hunt but he couldn't just sit still. So instead he swam to the border of the Amari Clan and back to the tide pools until the tide came down. There he saw Jack in his usual attire and instead of holding the cups of coffee, he had a different round container in his hands.

“Hey Reaper, I thought you wouldn't show up again,” Jack said with a smile as he saw Gabe’s figure in the water. The human, not land dweller, had gotten a keen eye and was finally able to see him if he was swimming up. When Gabe broke through the water, Jack was opening the container and had a metal round object in his hand. “Now this coffee is cold and really sweet. I thought you-” Jack stopped when he looked at Gabe’s face. “Are you okay?”

“Do you know anyone that hunts fish and wears a mask?” Gabriel asked suddenly.

“What?”

Gabriel pushed himself closer to Jack, trying to get any information out of him. “Do you know anyone on land that wears a mask and hunts in the ocean?”

“I don't, why?” Jack asked.

Gabriel felt like Jack was hiding something from him so he decided to use  _ the Siren's call. _

“Jack Morrison, do you know anyone on the land that likes to hunt in the ocean and wears a mask.”

Jack's eyes narrowed which wasn't the normal reaction to that magic and he said, “I already told you no. What the hell is going on?”

Gabriel growled and was ready to attack when he heard something from Jack's pocket. This had Gabriel duck near the water, his instincts told him that this was land dweller magic and it could hurt him.

“What now Jesse?” Jack sighed as the thing made more noise. It was something about a Mr. Policeman and running. Jack had opened the small box just as it said about turning a spotlight on because it was so shiny. “Yes Jesse?”

Gabriel slowly got up from the water while Jack looked confused. He pressed something on the box and said, “That's weird.”

“What is that?” Gabriel asked.

“This? Oh, it's a smart phone,” Jack explained while he showed it to Gabe.

On the screen was a picture to three kids. The female looked like she was taking a picture with a big smile. The dark skinned male looked very photogenic compared to the other two and the last male was giving the girls bunny ears while his smile screamed mischief.

“Hana said I needed a cell phone and convinced me to get this one,” Jack said, making Gabe tear his eyes off the phone for a moment. “It's like a magic box that can let you talk to people who are far away.”

“Can it let us talk to the masked hunter?” Gabe asked.

“Since we don't know who the masked hunter is, then no,” Jack said as he pressed a couple of buttons. He then placed the box to his ear.

“What are you doing?” Gabe asked.

“Calling a friend,” Jack said. His face suddenly seemed distance and Gabe knew he was talking to him when he said, “Jesse tried calling me and he didn't even talked. Is he okay?” There was a pause before he asked,  _ “ _ Are you sure? It sounded like there was a fight going on.” There was another pause and whoever told Jack something, he wasn't believing it.  _ “ _ If you say so. What are you two doing?” Now Jack looked worried as he finished the conversation with,  _ “ _ Well, I'm going to try to call Jesse I guess. Make sure you two are home tonight okay?”

He then pulled the phone away and Gabe could practically feel the worry that was seeping out.

“Something isn't right,” Jack said as he pressed a couple of buttons.

“Jesse is your kid right?” Gabe asked. When Jack nodded, he let out a hum. “Maybe the masked hunter got him too.”

“Too?” Jack asked in worry.

“Yes. My Jamie is missing along with the Shimada Clan’s two heirs. You said that Jesse was about sixteen right? Jamie is only fifteen as well as Sparrow and Heir is eighteen. The mask hunter could have taken them,” Gabe explained.

“I don't kn-” Jack started. His eyes then widen as something dawned on him. “When did the Shimada brothers went missing?”

“Yesterday, why?” Gabe asked.

“I think I know where they are,” Jack said. He dialed a number but he put it on speaker for Gabriel's shake.

_ “Hello?”  _ a female voice came through.

“Mei, this is Jack, Jesse's father,” Jack said. “Those two boys that you two found, what are their names and what do they look like?”

_ “Well, they didn't give us a name,”  _ Mei said slowly.  _ “One is smaller and younger than the other. They both have black hair, one long and the other short, and one has dark brown eyes.” _

“Does the long black hair one have a blue tail and the short tailed one a gray tail?” Gabe asked.

There was a pause through the phone before the girl stuttered,  _ “N-no. That would be impossible. That would make them merman and they don't exist.” _

Gabe can tell when someone is lying so he asked, “Did you find another boy? He would have blond hair, orange eyes, his tail would be badly damaged and he would be missing his right arm.”

_ “No. Like I said, mermen are not real so-” _

“Answer me girl! Is my son with you or not?” Gabriel yelled.

“Reaper, calm down,” Jack said. “The boys might have asked her and Jesse not to tell anyone who they are if they are like you when we first met.”

_ “Wait, you're with another merman Mr. Morrison?”  _ Mei gasped.

“Yes so please answer our questions,” Jack begged.

_ “We do have the two mermen you described with us but we haven't seen the other merman. Sorry sir,”  _ Mei finally said.

Reaper deflated a bit at that news. He was hoping that Jamie was with the Shimada brothers since he and Sparrow got along but it wasn't like that it seemed.

“Where are you?” Jack asked.

_ “I'm at Dr. Zenyatta’s office. He's the marine biologist and vet here in town. His office is just off the main downtown area near the ocean,”  _ Mei explained.

“How bad are the boys hurt?”

Gabe looked at Jack, confused as he asked, “They're hurt?”

_ “Pretty badly,”  _ Mei admitted.  _ “The gray tailed one is in surgery with Ms. Mercy still and Dr. Zenyatta finished with the blue tailed one a moment ago. He will live but we don't know if the gray tail one will.” _

Gabe had felt some relief after hearing that, glad that his son wasn't there for it meant the boy would have been in more trouble. The boys looked confused as they heard a male voice say something in the background.

“Mei, what's going on?” Jack asked.

_ “Someone with a mask is trying to get in here. Dr. Zenyatta is trying to-”  _ that's when a loud shot was heard and the male voice cried in pain.

“Mei!” Jack and Gabe both called.

_ “Oh god, he just shot Dr. Zenyatta!”  _ Mei whimpered.

“Mei, find some place to hide. I'm coming,” Jack said.

_ “Okay,”  _ the girl whimpered before she hung up.

As Jack went to stand up, Gabriel began to climb onto the land. “I'm coming with you,” Gabe said.

“What?” Jack asked.

“That masked man might be the hunter and he's my best lead to know where Jamie is. You need to take me with you since I don't know where it is,” Gabe said.

“Do you even know how to fight on land?” Jack asked.

“I know how to fight. I was an enforcer for the Talon tribe for sixteen years before I left. As for on land, well, we’ll learn now won't we?” Gabe answered. When Jack looked confused, he also said, “If you don't take me with you, I'm going to just follow you on land as best as I can. Even if I have to crawl, I will find out where Jamie went.”

Jack let out a frustrated growl as he picked Gabriel in a bridal style and went as fast as he could to the car.

“And my name is John,” Jack suddenly said as he got close to the car.

“What?” Gabe asked, confused.

“My real name is John Morrison, not Jack. That's just a nickname,” he said.

Jack then put Gabriel in the passenger seat and started the car just as he gave a sad chuckle. When Jack looked confused as he peeled out of the area and began to speed away.

“You do know that I can practically make you do anything I want now. I can make you slit your own throat if I so wish,” Gabe said.

“I figured it was something like that,” Jack said simply.

“Then why tell me your real name?” Gabe asked.

“Because I want you to know,” Jack said. “And I trust you enough that if we come out of this alive, you won't harm me.”

Gabe looked confused at Jack before he let out a laugh. It was harsh and a bit cold but it didn't sting Jack like it would most.

“You're an idiot for trusting me,” Gabe said after he was done laughing, “but I suppose that's why I like you.” He was silent for a moment, with a small grin on his face. “My name is Gabriel Reyes.”

Jack smiled as he said, “ I knew you were an angel when I met you. Now let's see if your the angel of justice.”

Gabriel smirked as they turned around a corner roughly. “No, I'm no angel. Just the grim reaper.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At the end of this story, I'm going to do a one shot but I'm thinking after that one, I might do requests. Meaning if you send me what you want written through my Tumblr, and if I'm not too busy, I'll write it. It'll be my small reward to you guys for staying with me with this. See you soon!


	17. Hello Darkness My Old Friend Part A

To say Jack's driving while under pressure was like saying there wouldn't be permanent finger marks on his dashboard from Gabriel. If they didn't have to hurry and catch the masked hunter before he left, then Gabriel would have demanded to be let out so he could try and find the place on his own.

In normal circumstances, it would have taken half an hour for Jack and Gabriel to get to the building but today it only took them seven.

“Put me in the water,” Gabriel ordered as Jack opened his dashboard. 

“Right,” Jack said as he pulled out a gun.

There was a new plan and it was something they had decided on the ride. It was a plan made between Gabriel calling Jack ‘a lunatic land dweller with smart and reaction time of a eaten plankton’ and ‘I should be in Nascar for this so shush it Mr. Hot Topic’. Since Gabriel couldn't really fight on land and would be more of a hindrance, Gabriel would go and find the hunter's boat to place a hole in it.

Jack had quickly checked it and grabbed his extra ammo. It was nothing fancy, just a generic black gun most people would see on the movies. His pride and joy was a rifle but that was at home so this one had to do.

Once he made sure the safety was on, he placed it in his pocket and grabbed Gabriel. He placed him into the ocean near the docks and they both looked to the building when they heard gunshots.

“Be safe Jack. If you die in there, I'm going to bring you back just so I can do it myself,” Gabriel growled.

“Will do,” Jack said as he ran into the building.

Gabriel heard nothing at first but then more gunshots rang out. For once in his life, he wished he wasn't a merman just so he can go in there and make sure he was safe. The best he could do right now though was to find the hunter's boat and destroy it.

Gabriel went underwater and went to do his plan. He got near the boats rather quickly but he stopped in his tracks at what he saw.

Jamie was swimming around near a boat, mumbling to himself. He looked safe for the most part and worried which made Gabriel feel a bit relieved but he didn't like what he saw. There was a chain wrapped around his waist that rubbed into his skin roughly but it didn't break it yet. Whenever Jamie went farther than the chain would allow, he would gasp as the weight of a boat kept him there. He would then swim back with a small giggle before talking to himself again.

“Jamie?” Gabriel asked in shock.

Jamie looked up in shock and then with anger.

“What are you doing here?” Jamie demanded.

“I've come looking for you,” Gabriel said. “Jamie-”

“That's not my name,” Jamie growled. “It's not Jamie, Jamison, or any other name you would have liked. It's Junkrat now.”

Gabriel was surprised at how Jamie, or Junkrat, acted but he was sort of expecting it. If Junkrat wasn't angry or upset, then he wouldn't have ran away then.

“Okay Junkrat,” Gabriel said slowly as he put a hand out. He began to inch closer to him but not out of fear, it was not to spook the boy too much. “Come home Junkrat, I'm sorry if I had hurt your feelings but I promise I will make it up to you.”

Junkrat let out a growl as he saw Gabriel come closer but he began to relax a bit when he heard the promise.

“What will you do to make it better?” Junkrat asked.

“I'm going to try to listen to you more often,” Gabriel said. “I took Amelie out to hunt so that I can talk to her about her actions but I wasn't thinking about how you would feel about that. That was wrong of me and if you let me, I will try to put your feelings before my actions.”

Junkrat seemed to be in thought and when Gabriel went to try to take the chain off of him, he suddenly asked, “Can I have something? Something that will show me that you are serious about the promise?”

“Sure,” Gabriel said.

Then without warning, Junkrat sliced his nails down Gabriel's face before punching him in the jaw to daze him. Gabriel hissed in pain as he felt seawater flood into his mouth from a new hole.

“Cricky that smarts,” Junkrat giggled as he waved his hand. “Good thing I let Roadhog sharpen my claws. I bet if I strike you in the throat I could get your head clean off.”

Gabriel went to move away but he felt the cold chains wrap against his throat and pull him so his back touched Junkrat's chest.

“You know, even after making that deal with Roadhog, I didn't think I could really do much harm,” Junkrat said as he used the boat to hold one side of the chain and the other in his hand. He purposely had it loose enough where Gabriel wouldn't pass out right away but strong enough to keep him in place and stop him from speaking. “Roadhog don't seem to like killing land dwellers though so he got me to do it. It wasn't that very hard actually! After I heard that command I went to town and I even got an arm to snack on! Of course though, it was pretty easy to get that Jesse kid spilled the shells on where the Shimada brothers were. Maybe I'm more of a shark then I thought.”

As Junkrat chuckled with mad glee as Gabriel felt dread fill his stomach. It didn't take a genius to put two to two together. Jamie had killed Jack's son and he liked it.

“I was planning to make Heir the first merman I killed but I think I can't pass this opportunity up. Bye bye dad,” Junkrat said with a smile.

Before Junkrat could do that, Gabriel was able to rotate himself just enough so that the chain was on the side of his neck and away from his windpipe. There he pushed Junkrat's face with brute force with one hand and gave him a punch to his stomach with the other. Junkrat yelped in pain as he dropped the chain and Gabriel brought his tail up to hit him in the chest with it.

“Jamison Fawkes, you are to stay still and let me take the chain off you,” Gabriel said coldly.

Junkrat's eyes widen as he felt his limbs lock up thanks to the magic. He watched with hatred as Gabriel went to try to get the padlock off of the chains.

“I hate you! I'm going to fucking kill you the first chance I get!” Junkrat spat out. “I'm going to rip you from limb to limb and shove your hand up where the sun don't shine.”

Gabriel kept quiet as Junkrat threw more insults at him and telling him how he will kill him. He didn't know why Junkrat was this upset but Gabriel plans to lock him in the cave until he can get to the root of the problem to fix it. First thing first though, he had to unlock him from the boat.

Just when Gabriel thought he got it, he heard the boat's engine rumble to life. Gabriel let out a curse as he tried to use his own strength to get the lock off.

“That sounds like me ride,” Junkrat purred. “You see, my partner and I have a lot of places to go, merfolk to kill. You understand right? So nice meeting you again Pops but next time, it won't be so pleasant.”

With that, Junkrat was yanked away from Gabriel by the chain he fought to free him from. Junkrat was in obvious pain from the jerk and not being able to move thanks to  _ the Siren's call _ , but he still laughed and waved to Gabriel when he could.

At first Gabriel tried to follow the boat with Junkrat trailing behind but he knew it was a lost cause. That thing was made for speed, one that Gabriel didn't have. That didn't stop him though as he tried to keep up and didn't stop until they were long out of his sight.

Gabriel's tail spazzed a bit from the raw pain from swimming to much. He took deep breaths of air from his gills as he pressed a hand to his cheek to check the damage. It wasn't as bad as he first thought. Yes there was a new hole in it but he could fix it up hopefully.

With a frown though, Gabriel slowly made his way back to tell Jack that he had lost a son today too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we're almost at the end of Stop Stealing My Fish, I thought of making an Ask blog for this. It's at Keep-Stealing-My-Fish.tumblr.com. I'm still working on it and making the icons. It should be open by Saturday at the latest.  
> Lets give a big thanks to Mrs. Nicole for encouraging to do this!


	18. Hello Darkness My Old Friend Part B

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bad News: This is the last chapter of Stop Stealing My Fish  
> Good News: On Halloween the next page of this Story will be posted and in between will be one shots.  
> So please enjoy and may your hearts be strong

Once Jack had put Gabriel into the water and left him, he had to put his mind set back like he did in the Marines. He couldn't think on how much he had wanted to say to Gabriel that he wanted a good luck charm. No, now one of Jesse's friends is in danger and he needs to save her.

As soon as he got to the door, he took the safety off and held it down. He slowly crept through the door and saw a male laying on the ground in a puddle of blood. He went to him and saw his eyes were open and he was trying to silently close his wounds. The male looked to Jack and he whispered so quietly that he almost couldn't hear him and he was right next to him.

“Ignore me and go after the others. Mercy got Mei and the patients into the freezer in the back,” he had said.

Jack gave him a nod and then went to the door that lead to the back. He saw the examination room where there was a dead seal next to a broken tank. Jack went as close to the seal as possible without stepping on the glass and saw it had multiple wounds in a close area. That told him that the gun that the man had was most likely a sawed off shotgun. He will have to be careful then.

He walked past the seal where he heard slamming come from. Slowly he went to the plastic door and listened to the way the person slammed into the door. He found a pattern and quickly went from his hiding spot and aimed in the direction where the sound came from and let a single bullet free next to the attacker.

“That is your only warning shot. Put down your weapon down,” Jack warned.

The man paused and when he did, he took in what they looked like. They were a giant with being able to stand over seven feet tall. They were wearing a black shirt that was barely able to fit him because of his large size in weight and height. He was also wearing navy blue camouflage overalls with the straps down. He had black boots on as well that had tips on it as well which can easily gut someone. Jack was able to take in the weird strapped holster on the man shoulders that took the place of the overalls straps and a giant sawed off gun that seemed to fit in their hands perfectly. The person turned to look at Jack and he was able to see the mask of a pig on their face.

That mask is what made Jack falter. He had seen that mask as Hana painstakingly stitched it together for her home ec project. It took a couple of tries and errors until it became perfect in her opinion. After receiving a B on the project, she gave it to the person she had thought of as a thank you gift.

“Mako?” Jack asked, shock clear in his voice.

“Hello Jack,” Mako calmly said as now he gave Jack his full attention.

“What the hell are you doing?” Jack demanded.

“Getting rid of some vermin,” Mako answered.

It took a minute for Jack to think what the vermin might be and he asked, “The two merman that are here?”

Mako chuckled but instead of the light hearted one that Jack came to know, it was a dark one.

“Yes, the two merman that are here.”

“Did you hurt the two boys?”

“No. I tried to kill two predators and I came to finish the job.”

“What did they do?” Jack asked.

“They exist,” was Roadhog’s simple answer.

“What the fuck is that suppose to mean?” Jack demanded.

Roadhog let a big sigh before he asked, “Remember when you asked me if I had a family Jack?”

“Yeah, you said you had a wife and daughter but they died.”

“I never told you how they died,” Roadhog stated. “As you know, I was in the Royal Australia Navy for the longest time. One day, my friends and I decided to do some harpoon practicing when I accidentally killed a mermaid. I didn't know that at the time, she didn't come up when I pulled the harpoon up. But her mate wasn't just going to forgive me that easily.

“He had followed my ship and when I went to shore for a small leave to see my wife, he watched us there. My wife was eight months along and she asked me to take her on a small romantic sail ride. She told me it was because it was most likely the last time we would have for a long. I took her on the boat like she wanted and when we were in the middle of the sea, it attacked. This merman was part killer whale so it was able to easily knock our boat over and have us land into the sea. It then used its magic to make me watch as it killed my wife and daughter. It first stabbed in her stomach, like I did with his Mate. He held her there, keeping his arm in her until she had died, just like his mate.

“After he left, it took a rescue crew the longest time to find her. Some of the fishes got to them and but I was finally able to see my daughter.

“Jack, she was beautiful. She had her mother's black hair but she was almost as dark as me. My wife, my Rose, never did tell me the gender of our baby. She wanted to surprise me when I came home from my tour for good. Even though I didn't know the gender, we did pick out a name for her if she did turn out to be what she was. Regina Grace Rutledge. It was pretty and it honored both of our mothers so we thought it would be a nice thing.

“But Jack, I didn't even get to hold her, touch her, or anything. I wanted to save them, protect them. I wanted to watch her crawl, see her take her first steps, and hold her close when she needed her Papa the most. I wanted to try to be the best father, but I had failed before she was even born.

“Ever since then, I told myself I would hunt every single one of those abominations and kill them! I’m going to kill every single one of them so no father will lose a child or husband a wife to them! Now if you are truly my friend, you will stand aside and let me get these two.”

Even with the mask hiding his face, Jack could tell that Mako was crying. Jack was almost crying himself after hearing that story but he knew that this wasn't right.

“I'm sorry for your lost Mako, I am, but this isn't going to bring them back. Revenge isn't the answer and as a true friend, I'm going to stop you before you climb into something you can't get out of.”

Mako was silent and for a moment, Jack thought he got through to him. He however saw this wasn't the case as he lifted the gun and aimed it at him.

“Roadhog doesn't need friends,” he said coldly as he pulled the trigger.

Jack was barely able to get out of the way but even then he felt a piece of the shrapnel hit his shoulder. Roadhog went to shoot him again and Jack kicked over an examination table for some cover. It won't last for long with how flimsy the metal was but it was the only place in the room where he could take cover.

Jack heard Roadhog reloading his gun and he took his chance. He got up from the table and tried to shoot at Roadhog but for a big fat guy, he was fast.

“Let's see who gives the better training, the Australian navy or the American Marines?” Roadhog snorted.

Roadhog was about to shoot again when the building slightly shook. Then, out from the door where everyone was hiding came a lone blue dragon that slid through the air. It was transparent and looked like the fable dragons from the Asian legends but it was powerful. It was able to go at Roadhog and he screamed in pain when it touched him. Jack got up from his hiding spot and went to shoot at Roadhog again.

This made him growl and run out of the office. He may have been out for blood but he wasn't stupid. He was using the dragon as a wall to escape Jack for he knew he couldn't win now.

Jack had watched Roadhog escape with a heavy heart. Mako was his best friend after all but he refused to let anyone harm children.

Once he was sure he was gone and the dragon had disappeared, Jack went to the door and said, “The coast is clear.”

The door slowly opened and out peeked Mercy’s head. When she saw it was Jack, she opened the door all the way and smiled at him.

“Jack! Thank God that you're here,” she said.

“Angela, are you okay?” Jack asked.

“Hmmm?” Angela then looked at her clothes and saw her blue tank top and brown pants were ruined by blood. “I'm fine, this isn't my blood. I was in a middle of surgery before that man came in.” She then turned around and said, “Mei, it's safe to come out.”

Slowly Mei did come out, shivering a bit from the cold but what caught Jack's eyes was the beings on the table. One was a merman that was panting as if he ran a marathon as he leaned protectively over a badly injured merman.

“You must be the Shimada brothers. Your clan is looking for you,” Jack said.

The awake merman looked shocked while Mercy said, “Well tell them that they're under my care. Mei, call the ambulance for Dr. Zenyatta. Jack, can you put that table back for Bitey to sit on? I still have to do surgery on his brother.”

Jack nodded and grabbed the blue tailed merman. He didn't fight him and this close up, he saw that his tail was badly damaged and the end looked like it was closed up. He gently placed the merman onto the table after setting it up and then pat his head.

“I'll be back okay? I'm going to check on Dr. Zenyatta,” he told Mercy.

As he was leaving, Bitey asked, “Do you know Jesse Mccree?”

Jack stopped in his tracks and he nodded. “Yeah, I'm his dad.”

Bitey seemed to think about it for a moment before he bowed. “I want to thank you and him for saving my brother and I. We are forever in your debt.”

Jack smiled a bit, feeling slightly happy which was needed after what happened. “Don't worry about it. I'll tell Jesse to come visit soon so that you can thank him yourself.”

“Fair enough,” Bitey said.

Jack then left the room and saw that Dr. Zenyatta was still on the floor just barely hanging onto consciousness.

“Hey, Mei is calling an ambulance, they will be here soon,” Jack said.

“Thank you,” Dr. Zenyatta sighed.

It didn't take the ambulance long to come to the place and Dr. Zenyatta was whisked away to the hospital. The police also came to get a report. Mei had to wait for her parents so the cops just took Mercy’s and Jack’s report for now. They wanted to close of the hospital but with the help of Bitey, it wasn't necessary in their book. After two hours, Jack felt it was safe to go outside to find Gabe.

“Reaper, are you here?” Jack called out, not feeling safe to call out Gabriel's real name. Jack had heard a splash and when he went there, he was shocked at what he saw. “Gabe what happened?”

“It doesn't matter,” Gabriel said as he lifted himself up a bit on the deck. “Jack, I found Jamie.”

“That's good,” Jack said with a sigh of relief.

“No, it isn't. He's working with the masked hunter now and he's set on kill all the merfolk,” Gabriel said with some pain in his heart. “But Jack, Jamie...he..” He sighed and when he looked at Jack, he looked like a soldier telling a wife about her enlisted husband. “Jack, Jesse's dead.”

 

* * *

 

_Two months later_

 

Jack was back in his hometown. He had returned when Hana and Lucio came back from camp but he just grabbed the two and took them back to the ocean for a while. He had hired some people to watch his animals while he and the kids searched high and low for Jesse.

Now Jack sees it was wrong to doubt Gabriel but he couldn't believe it. He didn't want to believe that Mako could kill his son but after the tests came back from the arm they found in Mako’s shed, he shouldn't deny it. He did though, and while Gabriel knew that Junkrat wasn't lying, he and his two daughters went to help.

Hana and Lucio was in awe that merfolk exists and it didn't take them very long to become friends with Tracer and they're still trying to warm up to Widowmaker. Meanwhile, Mei had met the two and there was some chemistry between the her and Tracer. They kept bringing gifts to each other and when they're not searching for Jesse, Mei and Tracer were watching anime or just hanging out on Mei’s boat.

Tracer and Mei weren't the only one with chemistry though. There was one between Dr. Zenyatta and Seaweed, but theirs was different. Mercy was able to save Seaweed but it had cost him his remaining arm, most of his tail, and some skin. When Seaweed woke up, Bitey had told his brother what happened. Seaweed was feeling guilty for his brother being harmed, and then more so for allowing Dr. Zenyatta to be wheelchair bound.

Dr. Zenyatta didn't seem to mind it though and the last Jack had heard, Bitey went back to sea while Seaweed is now living with Dr. Zenyatta. The doctor and Mercy were working together to help Seaweed get prosthetics while Zenyatta was also helping him be at peace with what happened.

But that was a while ago and now after fighting with Mercy, he finally decided to give Jesse a funeral. By law, Jesse was dead and that wasn't going to change. The funeral was small and very few words were said. Afterwards, they buried a casket that only had Jesse's lone arm.

After they buried the casket, Mercy took Mei, Hana, and Lucio out for ice cream. Jack though, he stayed behind as he stared at the headstone.

_Here lies Jesse J. Mccree. October 26, 20xx - June 28, 20xx. One BAMF_

When Jack requested that to be put on his headstone, the kids sadly smiled. That was Jesse's favorite thing to say about himself. He swore he would get a giant belt buckle with that one day that would have the BAMF but until then, Hana and Lucio got him a couple of shirts that had those four letters on it. One of those very same shirts was the last thing Jesse ever wore.

After staying at the grave for a while, he felt something watching him. Jack quickly looked around, thinking it was Mako but it wasn't. Near the graveyard was a small forest and at the edge of that forest, was two animals that shouldn't be there.

One of them was a three legged coyote. Jack lived too far of any place that would have coyotes so he thought perhaps this one is a pet with how well groomed it was.

The other one was a bird on the coyote’s head. It was small and was a dark brown. If Jack had to put a picture to the face to that bird, it almost looked like the birds from the Egyptian hieroglyphs. The coyote watched Jack as it stayed still but the bird didn't seem to be able to. Sometimes it would bob about or ruffle it's feathers as it let out some calls.

Normally Jack would look at the two strange animals for no more than a moment but those brown eyes of the coyote seemed too intelligent for an animal and sad. Jack took a step forward to get a better look of the animals but the coyote stood up. This caused Jack to freeze and the bird to fall off its head. Jack and the coyote stared each other down for a moment until the coyote turned around and walked away with the bird wasn't too far behind. Jack stared at the spot for a moment before turning around himself and went back to his car to drive to the ice cream store to be with his two last kids.

  
  
_Stop Stealing My Fish End_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So my tablet is coming in on time but I've decided to open the asks already. So until then, the gang can answer your questions but just no pictures just yet!


End file.
